SEPANG, 19 April 2023:
Budget carrier AirAsia has clarified that complaints against high airfares featured on its Superapp are unjustified, especially in terms of various politicians and other airlines claiming this ticketing platform is offering such bookings without due permissions.
In a statement, airasia Superapp acting chief executive officer Mohamad Hafidz Mohd Fadzil said its “platform holds a Travel Agent Licence, and is also an IATA-accredited agent authorised to sell flights from any airline on its app and website.
“As an accredited online travel agency platform (OTA), airasia Superapp’s flight inventories come from both established partner aggregators as well as direct airline partners, a common OTA industry practice.”
With such an open and competitive platform, the customer is given various pricing options – which can vary greatly based on what third party sellers have packaged, inclusive of high pricing for premium or high-demand bookings.
“We wish to put on record that the Malaysia Airlines flight tickets displayed on the airasia Superapp were taken from inventories supplied by our established partner aggregators, and the flight fares and fare class (Economy or Business) information is supplied directly by our partner aggregators without any intervention from airasia Superapp.”
Hafidz further emphasised: “The same fare information was also displayed in other OTA platforms.”
As to why AirAsia has chosen to offer bookings beyond its own airline, he explained: “Since AirAsia was founded as a low-cost airline, the aspiration has always been to create an inclusive travel product that goes beyond AirAsia’s own offerings and allows people of Malaysia and Asean to travel beyond their regions’ network.
“We have world-renowned airline brands such as Etihad Airways, Turkish Airlines, All Nippon Airways, Air New Zealand, Citilink, KLM, Air France, Bangkok Airways and many others as our direct airline partners offering their flights on the airasia Superapp OTA platform.
“Since airasia Superapp was created in October 2020 as an online travel agency to drive tourism in Malaysia and promote new travel options for millions of people in Asean, it has developed many product lines, including its OTA platform offering flights from other airlines, hotel & accommodation, ride-hailing, digital travel retail & duty-free, community engagement and more.”