Passengers can now book ground and sea transport from more than 4,000 12Go operators without leaving the Super App.
With the launch of ‘Transport’ in the airasia Super App, the company offers its 10.6m monthly users a seamless booking experience for the entire trip, covering flights, hotels and now also ground transport and sea transport. Thanks to the 12Go partnership, airasia becomes the world’s first super app able to offer a complete journey experience, alongside other non-travel products like food and financial services, at scale.
Super app users from anywhere in the world can now easily compare, choose and book intercity buses, trains, private transfers, and ferries from 12Go’s inventory of more than 4,000 operators, covering nearly 50,000 routes across 26 Asian countries. To book ground transport users simply navigate to airasia Transport within the Super App, with post-booking servicing handled directly by the local operator.
This partnership is key to achieving 12Go’s mission to revolutionize the traveler experience by making ground transportation as easy to book as a hotel or flight. airasia’s Super App has 10.6m monthly active users, up 236% year-over-year, resulting in a growth in transactions of 524% compared to a year ago. By integrating 12Go’s technology, airasia accesses 12Go.asia’s entire inventory of ground and sea transport options, delivering on an urgent traveler need for a more complete booking experience, just in time for Asia’s busy holiday season, which begins in October and is expected to surpass pre-COVID levels of bookings.
Alexey Abolmasov, CEO 12Go explains, “Ground transport is the glue that makes international travel possible. Our mission is to improve the experience of travel by making the ground and sea elements of a trip simple to plan and book. We intend to partner with the tech and travel ecosystems to put ground transport options in front of travelers wherever they choose to shop, by making our simple to deploy API available at scale.”
Demand for travel is already sharply rebounding, following the lifting of travel restrictions with the UNWTO’s Tourism Recovery Tracker showing that demand for ground transport is outpacing air in the majority of the world. However, only 10% of bus, ferry, and train tickets are booked digitally today, meaning that despite the ease with which they can book airline, hotel, and destination experiences, travelers are still forced to organize ground transport in person at a kiosk or self-service machine.
Amanda Woo, CEO of airasia Super App commented: “Being able to easily get to the airport, or move between locations after your flight has landed can make or break a trip. That’s why we’re adding Asia’s most comprehensive bus, train and ferry options from 12Go to our Super App, so travelers can organize every aspect of their trip in one place. When it comes to the journey itself, ground transport is the final piece of the jigsaw for our users.”
Abolmasov added: “We’ve organized the world’s bus, train and ferry information by working closely with thousands of local operators to bring them online. This is our largest deal to date where we open up our inventory to a third party, and I’m delighted these hardworking local transport businesses are now part of one of the world’s largest and fastest growing digital lifestyle providers. This just wouldn’t have been possible even a year ago, and we hope this type of deal helps a greater number of travelers to plan more connected and comfortable journeys.”
This unique agreement is the first example of a super app investing to make such a broad range of ground transport options available to travelers, highlighting the significant value passengers attach to the ground transport leg of their journeys.
AirAsia named Best in Future of Digital Infrastructure at IDC Future Enterprise Awards 2022
Also, the airline has been awarded the Best in Future of Digital Infrastructure by IDC Future Enterprise Awards – Malaysia, specifically for the project – Building Out the Leading airasia Super App in ASEAN; a strong vote of confidence in digital business diversification undertaken by the Capital A Group.
This prestigious annual award backs the recent Q2 Capital A financial results where the group’s digital businesses as a whole reported robust revenue growth of 192% YoY, partly driven by the airasia Super App’s strong performance. This award also comes on the heels of AirAsia’s recent announcement as the World’s Best Low-Cost Airline for 13 consecutive years voted by the Skytrax World Airline Awards 2022.
Now in its sixth year, the IDC Future Enterprise Awards organised by International Data Corporation (IDC) ASEAN, celebrates the tech-enabled resilience of enterprises as they navigate through the challenges and disruptions in a fast-paced and increasingly digital world.
Tony Fernandes, CEO of Capital A in his acceptance speech said, “We would like to thank IDC for giving us this award as a recognition for all the hard work we have put in to transform an airline group into a digital group with a special emphasis on Super App. Our Super App was built with very little cash during Covid, with our rich and vast data that we have acquired over the years. We believe by providing a connected ecosystem, our Super App will change people’s lives and travel as our airline did. I would like to dedicate this award to Allstars across the whole group, and especially those in the airasia Super App team. Congratulations to everyone and thank you IDC ASEAN for this award.”
Amanda Woo commented, ”Today, we have fully transformed into a full-fledged travel and e-commerce platform business, with over 700 global carriers and 700,000 hotels worldwide to suit every travellers’ needs while also offering e-commerce lifestyle services such as e-hailing, food and parcel deliveries on the app. By the second quarter of this year, our Monthly Active Users (MAU) have increased by 236% compared to the same period last year, and user acquisition is also growing steadily. Our focus will continue to be to ensure an enhanced user experience for all our app users, while expanding our travel offerings and building community & engagement features into the app which will drive more frequency and utilisation. We really appreciate the recognition, and this is motivation for us to work even harder to create more value, not just for our customers but also all of our stakeholders such as shareholders, investors and business partners.”
Congratulating airasia Super App on the award recognition, Sherie Ng, Country Director, Singapore and Malaysia, Google Cloud, said, “Whether it’s upskilling airasia Allstars with cloud and AI related skills for the future, using Google Workspace to foster closer collaboration in today’s hybrid work environment, or unlocking data-driven insights to deliver hyper-personalised recommendations to users on behalf of small businesses in its ecosystem, airasia Super App has been making quick and significant strides in the past year to establish itself as a leader in Southeast Asia’s digital platform arena. Google Cloud is privileged to be contributing to airasia Super App’s forward looking vision and transformation journey – one that began well before the pandemic and is now recognized as an industry best practice by the IDC Future Enterprise Awards. We very much look forward to continuing our close collaboration with Tony and his team to help deliver greater convenience and value, and democratise access to travel and lifestyle services.”
Sudev Bangah, Managing Director of IDC ASEAN, said, “Congratulations to AirAsia on the well-deserved achievement. It is amazing to witness the acceleration of business transformation during the pandemic. The airasia Super App digital infrastructure enables hyper-personalised and optimised offerings for its customers, increased workforce productivity and talent enhancement with agile culture that led to significant optimization & cost savings. AirAsia’s digital infrastructure upgrade is a great example of how technology improvement can be used to benefit all parties in the ecosystem with tangible results.”
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
