AirAsia: Malaysia should lead the way in Asean aviation

SEPANG: Malaysia, which will chair the Asean Economic Community (AEC) this year, should lead the way in addressing constraints and challenges within the aviation industry, said AirAsia Bhd CEO Aireen Omar.
"Challenges this year for the region would be the infrastructure constraint that could limit growth. There will be some growth but it may limit the speed of growth that we want. That's something that we hope that Asean will look into; how to address the infrastructure constraint and standardisation of rules and regulations in order to grow the aviation industry, which in this part of the world has so much potential.
"There's a lot that needs to be done and we hope with Malaysia chairing AEC this year, it will be able to lead the way," she told reporters at "Rise and Fly with Aireen Omar", a 30-minute interactive session organised by UCSI University for its scholars yesterday, during which she also received the "Malaysia's Top 10 Most Inspiring Young Leaders and Personalities Award" from UCSI.
She said there are opportunities to grow in the Asean region this year and the implementation of the Open Skies Policy would improve economic prospects and boost economic activity.
"We hope that the Open Skies will come into fruition very soon because that will mean we can travel anywhere without any limitations and restrictions, and that would mean not only better travel opportunities for the population base but also better economic prospects because you're encouraging businesses to actually grow and flourish as connectivity now is far better than what it used to be.
"In order for any economy or business activity to grow, the most important thing is connectivity and in Southeast Asia or Asean, the best way to connect is by air because land transportation is not as conducive because of the geographical landscape," she added.
For the low-cost carrier, Aireen said it will continue to improve efficiency in order to remain profitable and will continue adding more routes to complement the network built by the group but declined to elaborate further on the new routes that it is planning to add this year.