Skift Travel News Blog

Short stories and posts about the daily news happenings around the travel industry.

Airlines

AirAsia Superapp Topped 10 Million Monthly Active Users in the Second Quarter

2 years ago

As travel recovers in Southeast Asia, the AirAsia superapp saw the ranks of its monthly active users reach more than 10.6 million in the second quarter with an assortment of services, Capital A stated Monday in releasing the airline group’s preliminary operating statistics.

AirAsia Super App. AirAsia

On the digital front, the AirAsia superapp saw its monthly active users rise 236 percent year over year to more than 10.6 million in the quarter that ended June 30, and that represented a 70 percent jump compared with the first quarter. Category leader Grab in Singapore had about three times the number of users in the first quarter, which was the latest statistics available.

Capital A, formerly known as AirAsia Group Berhad, said the rise in its monthly active users can be attributed to “the strong return of travel” and efforts to attract new users for the mobile app.

Capital A

Transactions, boosted by increases in flights, ridesharing, the Kiwi.com-powered booking of airlines outside the group, and the company’s subscription discount service Super+, rose 524 percent to nearly 4.9 million in the second quarter.

The release of these preliminary operating statistics did not include revenue numbers or transaction values.

Capital A’s BigPay fintech offering, with new products such as the DuitNow QR code merchant payments and money transfers, saw the number of customers with an active card increase 62 percent year over year to more than 1.2 million.

The company’s logistics business, Teleport, saw its cargo tonnage fall 27 percent year over year because of the tough lockdowns in China that began in March. Deliveries, however, soared 630 percent year over year to 1.15 million because of a new e-commerce platform that the company began using during the second quarter, Capital A said.

Malaysia-based Capital A said its passenger numbers in the second quarter leaped 633 percent, and its load factor of 84 percent was its highest since 2020.

Online Travel

Online Travel Agency Kiwi Receives $105 Million in Investment

2 years ago

Kiwi.com, an online travel agency based in Brno, Czechia, said on Wednesday it had received an investment of $105 million (€100 million) from an unnamed “preeminent global institutional investor.”

The company didn’t disclose the terms of the deal. General Atlantic had invested in the company before the pandemic.

One of Kiwi.com’s signature offerings is “virtual interlining,” where it pieces together itineraries from different airlines that may not have formal code-sharing agreements. It offers insurance and other assistance to help knit together the trips and handle service complaints when things go awry. But the company also offers other trip components for sale, such as hotel stays and bus trips.

Kiwi.com reported rapid growth before the pandemic, but when Covid struck, many online forums lit up with complaints about the company’s customer service. The company has said it has put better procedures in place to handle customer needs, and it also says that it has returned to growth.

See the press release