New Delhi: In an effort to start its own e-hailing services, Malaysian budget airline AirAsia Group on Saturday said that it is planning to launch a flying-taxi business as soon as next year. Addressing an online discussion as part of the Youth Economic Forum, Air Asia CEO Tony Fernandes on Saturday said that the company is working on that right now and it is about a year and a half away from launching.
With the airline business getting affected due to the coronavirus pandemic, AirAsia has been expanding in the digital space. Last year, Air Asia launched a “super app” that offers services from travel and shopping to logistics and financial services.
Saying that the AirAsia expects to start its own e-hailing services in April, Fernandes said that the flying taxis will come with as many as four seats and will be powered by a quadcopter.
Apart from this, Air Asia also announced that it’s partnering with a state agency called the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre to develop an urban drone delivery service.
While AirAsia is looking for further opportunities to expand its services into new areas, the CEO said that he is optimistic that the air travel will soon rebound with the rollout of vaccination programs. Notably, the Air Asia group offers low-cost flights linking 22 countries, mostly in the Asia-Pacific region.