As of last weekend, the AirAsia group of airlines becomes five with the latest addition being VietJet AirAsia. 

And by the third quarter of this year, the group, which comprises AirAsia, AirAsia X, Thai AirAsia and Indo AirAsia, will fly its 100th million passenger, an indication of how fast the Malaysia-based airline has grown since it was established in 1993.

Kathleen Tan, head of commercial for the group, said VietJet AirAsia, with two aircraft, would fly both domestic and regional routes. 

It will launch flights in August and is still finalizing the route network but the idea is to allow longhaul customers to travel to Vietnam via Kuala Lumpur and then to fly domestically within the country.

“Vietnam is the next big destination and with Thailand’s unfortunate problems, it will become even more popular,” said Tan. 

“It is a country that’s waiting to be discovered. It’s a place where you can see the old and the new. Even crossing the street in Ho Chi Minh City is a tourist attraction.”

Meanwhile, to stimulate demand for Thailand during these difficult times, AirAsia launched a Go Thailand promotion in Malaysia where it offered a bundled air, hotel and transfers package.

“Surprisingly we had few cancellations even when the state of emergency was declared but we are monitoring the situation. We haven’t cancelled flights, we won’t run away from a destination.”

Another destination it didn’t run away from was Tianjin, AirAsia’s first northern point in China. In late 2009, it announced it was suspending services between November 23, 2009 and January 30, 2010 due to poor load factors.

Not one to give up so easily, Tan charged her marketing team with the task of creating a new market for the route “otherwise they will kill it”. 

“In Malaysia, China is still seen as a place for older travellers so we decided to make Beijing cool and hip.”

It launched a viral campaign called “Are you ready for the new Beijing?” and suggested itineraries that took visitors to the hutongs and hip areas such as the 798 Art Zone and it showed images of contemporary art and food stalls found in the hutongs.

It marketed it through its Facebook fan page and, by the time the route was re-opened on February 1, 2010, had sold 3,000 seats with the viral campaign. 

AirAsia now flies 200 flights a week to China, making it the single biggest largest destination for the group.

It says the average occupancy rate of all AirAsia’s China routes has reached 75%; while occupancy rates on the Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Guilin, Hangzhou, and Chengdu routes have even reached an average of 85%.

Tan continues to lament the lack of tourism board support for low cost airlines such as AirAsia which she says can have a major impact on a destination.

“They think we bring young and cheap travellers, they are so wrong,” she said. “Tourism boards are still trapped in legacy thinking and they don’t realise demographics are changing and the way people buy travel has changed.”

Among the more progressive tourism boards AirAsia works with are Visit Britain and Gold Coast Tourism Bureau. “They get it, they say, we give you the money, you make it work for us,” said Tan.

And even though AirAsia does not fly to Hobart, Tasmania’s state tourism body has also approached AirAsia to do joint marketing.

Asked her views on the new brand, “YourSingapore”, and digital strategy of the Singapore Tourism Board, Tan said, “I think they are smart. They have the gall to do it. The timing is right. Anyone that does not engage with digital media now will be left out.”

Featured image credit (Woman driving a boat in the mekong delta. Vietnam) : iStock