Malaysia’s budget airline group AirAsia, which is transforming into a transport and e-commerce conglomerate through its new holding firm Capital A, plans to expand its ride-hailing service “AirAsia Ride” to Thailand in April, the company’s regional chief executive officer Lim Chiew Shan said at a news conference on March 16 in Kuala Lumpur.

He said the company will begin with Bangkok, before expanding its coverage to other cities in the country.

“We are starting with 5,000 regular taxis, then after a few months, we will get private drivers to come on board,” he noted.

Rapid growth of AirAsia Ride in Malaysia

The service started in Kuala Lumpur in August and is pretty much replicating the offerings of established ride-hailing companies such as Uber, Grab, Lyft, DiDi of Gojek, currently confined to cars only. It meanwhile covers all major cities in Malaysia with 30,000 registered drivers and 700,000 rides to date, Lim said, adding that the number of total rides increased an average of 63 per cent per month in 2021.

AirAsia Ride is part of Capital A, which was launched in January this year and is co-owned by AirAsia founder Tony Fernandes. He started focusing on the expansion of non-airline businesses after the Covid-19 pandemic led to a near-collapse of air travel early in 2020.

Starting with cargo logistics and online travel bookings, the company’s offerings now additionally span over food, groceries and parcel delivery, restaurant booking, insurance and micro-lending through the “AirAsia Super App.”