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When AirAsia was established 15 years ago, we made a pledge to give everyone the opportunity to fly. Since then AirAsia has flown more than 330 million passengers to over 120 destinations in 26 countries and territories. Our fleet of 177 aircraft flies 221 routes and operates from 20 hubs in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. Today we are the largest airline – legacy or otherwise – among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), recording a turnover of US$3bn in 2016.Key to this growth has been a focus on keeping costs low. Our lean business model requires every part of the business to be efficient and as simple as possible, while ensuring safety is never compromised. We strive to incorporate best industry practices in all our systems and processes. And we instil among every one of our Allstars a culture of raising productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense. Among other things:We keep our aircraft flying as much as possible, while minimising time on the ground. Utilisation of each aircraft is currently more than 13 hours per day on average. And we aim to turn around each aircraft between sectors within 25 minutes.We streamline our operations, making processes as simple as possible. We operate a single type of aircraft, which means training for pilots, cabin crew, engineers and operations personnel can be standardised; our aircraft carry single-class seating; and we use standard operating procedures aligned with industry best practices across the Group as a means of achieving consistency of service and safety.This has allowed us to provide air services in a way that is responsible, cost-efficient and safe. For instance, we continually revisit our systems and processes – especially in the area of flight operations – to find new and better ways to reduce costs, which are in themselves positive for the environment. Many of these relate to fuel efficiency. Fuel makes up about 40 per cent of our total cost. By minimising our use of fuel we maintain lean operations while making sure that low fares do not translate into high environmental costs. And while we have been conscious of this from day one, we continually look for new and better ways to achieve this goal. The key to our success is small improvements per flight that result in large annual savings. Our efforts start with the type of fuel itself. We use grade A1 jet fuel, the highest grade of kerosene, which produces less CO2 emission than gasoline. Our next focus is on the aircraft fleet itself. AVIATION 113
