High airfares have peaked: AirAsia CEO

High airfares have peaked: AirAsia CEO

AirAsia’s CEO and founder Tony Fernandes has given some clarity to the issue plaguing the travel industry: How much longer for these sky-high airfares?

And while he hasn’t given an end date, he believes that the prices for his region have officially peaked.

“We are there or thereabouts,” Fernandes said in an interview at the Qatar Economic Forum in Doha.

“We don’t want it to go any higher, we want it to go lower. We want to stimulate more traffic, so I think they’ve peaked.”

Tony Fernandes, CEO AirAsia

On the topic of airfares, Fernandes spoke at the Aviation Festival Asia in Singapore earlier this year where he revealed his belief that airlines have been under-pricing their services and that the industry has a way to go in charging passengers an appropriate price.

He believes that these airfares are more authentic prices that should have been charged pre-pandemic.

“After not having flown for three years, passengers’ value of travel has also increased,” Fernando said.

If you can’t have something for three years, you start to see how significant it was.”

A month ago the AirAsia chief announced that he has decided to call it a day after holding the top spot for over 20 years, but no successor awaits.

Fernandes is yet to confirm precisely when he will leave the position as it could take a while before they find an adequate replacement for him.

And what is Fernandes looking for in his successor?

“Honestly, I don’t care where [my replacement] is from,” Fernandes said.

“We don’t really talk about race, religion, sex, sexual orientation. I don’t care, as long as they can do the job.”

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