The airline also needs to pivot to a wider regional lens from the first decade’s focus, which was largely domestic, said AirAsia group CEO, Tan Sri Tony Fernandes (pictured left).

The last 10 years have seen AirAsia grow into a company that encompasses six airlines — AirAsia Malaysia, AirAsia Thailand, AirAsia Indonesia, Philippines’ AirAsia, AirAsia Japan and AirAsia X. – serving 80 destinations on 142 routes, a practically all-new fleet of 103 Airbus A-320’s and 11 wide-body A330’s and A-340’s.

The aiirline staff has increased to about 10,000 comprising nationalites from ASEAN, East, West and South Asia, as well as from other parts of the world.

This is the main reason behind AirAsia establishing a regional base called AirAsia Asean in Jakarta, Indonesia.

“The office will be located far enough, physically as well as psychologically, from AirAsia’s airline offices in each of the countries we operate in,” said Fernandes.

He emphasised that to “avoid any misinterpretation” AirAsia Malaysia’s headquarters is not moving to Jakarta. It  is a Malaysian-registered airline, with all its aircraft registered under the Malaysian flag and it is a company listed on Bursa Malaysia (Malaysia Stock Exchange).

“That will not change. AirAsia is committed to upholding our pledge to Malaysians that ‘Now Everyone Can Fly’”.

The establishment of the AirAsia Asean office as the airline’s regional base is also to help more fully deliver on that pledge to all the people of ASEAN and beyond, explained Fernades.

“Shifting AirAsia’s emphasis to a regional strategy is, we believe, not just good business, but also a move that will keep us ahead of the inevitable competition that is heading our way.

“But while others focus largely on trying to gain market share in domestic markets, we seek to expand our footprint throughout the region. After all, no single domestic market in ASEAN, not even Indonesia, can match the potential of a regional ASEAN market of 600 million people and a combined East Asian market of 2 billion,”  he added.

The airline sees huge opportunities for growth in the enormous potential offered by the underserved market of three billion people spread across ASEAN, Northeast Asia and South Asia

AirAsia Asean will serve as the “nerve centre” of the group’sregional expansion. It will operate like how the Ryanair office in Dublin, Ireland serves as the strategic planning centre of Europe’s largest LCC.

“AirAsia Asean will also help us to ensure that our voice, our concerns and our appeals are heard much more clearly in the corridors of power within ASEAN. In fact, one of the reasons for locating the office in Jakarta is to help us engage more closely with the ASEAN Secretariat, which is headquartered in Indonesia’s capital city.”

Locating AirAsia’s regional base in Jakarta will also help raise the profile and branding of AirAsia Indonesia, which is heading for a listing on the Jakarta Stock Exchange by the end of the year, said Fernandes.

Fernandes felt that AirAsia Asean would also provide the staff with an environment free of the pressures of day-to-day operations and the necessary ‘firefighting’ that accompanies these endeavours, “and allow our senior managers the space, the time and the interaction so vital to keep us flying higher in our second decade.”

AirAsia is currently restructuring its management to accommodate the shift.