SEPANG: AirAsia Group Bhd expects its loss-making AirAsia Big Loyalty business to turn around in 2018 with increased revenue contribution towards the group to five per cent from the current two per cent.
Its chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said the optimism is expected to be driven by the recently-launched Freedom Flyer Programme, which would contribute more to the airline's load factor.
"From 2018, we anticipate Big Loyalty to be very profitable with the launch of this new programme.
"The revenue contribution will also be much larger with all the offers under the programme which makes it easy for our loyal customers to redeem flights, among others," he told reporters after the launch of the world's first Freedom Flyer Programme here today.
He said the programme is expected to increase its load factor by five per cent from current load factor of 87 to 90 per cent.
"With the current load factor as high as 90 per cent, we can add another five per cent with other promotions and activities like this," he said.
Fernandes said besides that, the group is also in talks with several partners for its co-brand card business, with Mastercard being among on board soon.
At the moment, the company has partnered with CIMB Niaga in Indonesia, Bangkok Bank in Thailand and Citibank in Malaysia for the business.
Besides that, Fernandes said the company is soon launching "its own version of Alipay in the group's effort to push for its e-commerce and digitalisation initiatives in the next two to three months.
"Passengers now can pay with their mobile phones. We are going to take cash off the plane."And that will be another way that they can get points as well."It is testing now and once we get the approval, I would say the service will be up and running in the next two to three months," he said.