Air Asia's new Asean hub in Jakarta has SIA, Jetstar encircled

Battle for the budget skies just got tougher.

According to a release, AirAsia asean, the regional base of the world’s best low-cost airline, was officially launched in Jakarta today.

The launch reaffirms AirAsia’s commitment to the Asean region, which it considers home, and coincides with the eve of the 45thanniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

With its new regional base, AirAsia strengthens its position as the Asean airline. AirAsia asean was set up as part of the regional expansion strategy of the group, which now includes six airlines, five of which are anchored in Asean: the short-haul carriers AirAsia Malaysia, AirAsia Thailand, AirAsia Indonesia, AirAsia Philippines and AirAsia Japan, and the long-haul carrier AirAsia X.

Tony Fernandes, Group CEO of AirAsia, and Dato’ Kamarudin Meranun, Deputy Group CEO of AirAsia, will be based at the AirAsia asean office.

“The establishment of the AirAsia asean office in Jakarta as our regional base is to help to more fully deliver on our pledge – Now everyone can fly – to all the people of Asean and beyond. We are blessed to be located in a part of the world where economic growth is expected to be sustained despite the chilly economic winds blowing through Europe and the United States. Shifting AirAsia’s emphasis to a regional strategy is, we believe, not just good business, but also a move that will keep us ahead of the inevitable competition that is heading our way,” Fernandes said.

AirAsia asean, as the nerve center of the group’s regional expansion, will help ready the group for the implementation of the ASEAN Open Skies policy and the ASEAN Economic Community, initiatives that the ASEAN Secretariat is now actively pushing in its 10 member-countries.

“AirAsia asean will help ensure that our voice, our concerns and our appeals are heard much more clearly in the corridors of power with ASEAN. One of the reasons for locating the office in Jakarta is to help us engage more closely with the ASEAN Secretariat, which is headquartered here,” Fernandes said.

By focusing on regional growth, AirAsia expands its market base to 600 million people and brings Asean closer – within four-hour flight radii – to mega populations in neighboring giants China and India as well as in Japan and Korea. The Asean region, Northeast Asia and South Asia have a combined population of 3 billion people, or 43% of the world’s population.

“No single domestic market in Asean, not even Indonesia, can match the potential of a regional ASEAN market of 600 million people,” he added.