Siegtraund Teh

As part of AirAsia’s internal promotion Siegtraund assumed the position of group chief commercial officer, taking over the responsibility of Kathleen Tan, former group head of commercial who moved to AirAsia Expedia as chief executive officer (read story here).

Siegtraund joined AirAsia’s commercial division in 2007 and was part of the team that was instrumental in laying down the airline’s footprints in North Asia, especially China, and in launching new routes. In 2012 she was seconded to AirAsia Japan to assist in building the commercial and marketing start-up of the new entity, while continuing with her role as group marketing manager.

AirAsia group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said internal promotions, such as Siegtraund’s, was part of the process of putting the right people in place to be ready for that continued growth.

“As AirAsia progress towards the second decade of success, we feel comfortable in letting Kathleen move to AirAsia Expedia. Our focus for the next five years is ancillary and adjacent businesses and the potential of AirAsia Expedia is enormous.”

Extra frequencies from four hubs

In a related development, the airline is introducing additional frequencies to six domestic destinations and one international route from four of the hubs in Malaysia as part of the low cost airline’s expansion plans this year.

The extra flights from the Kuala Lumpur hub will be to Bangkok, Kota Kinabalu, Sibu, Kuching and Johor Bahru, while the Johor Bahru hub will see additional frequencies to Kuching, Sibu, Miri and Penang.

There will also be added frequencies from Penang to Kota Kinabalu and Kuching, as well as from Kota Kinabalu to Kuching.

“The additional frequencies from our various hubs will be an added convenience factor for our guests, especially for those who are time-sensitive, such as business travellers. With our additional flight time options, guests can now better plan their journey,” said Jasmine Lee, AirAsia commercial director.

The commencement dates for these additional frequencies and new routes are between February 1 to March 4, 2013.

10,000 free seats to Sabah, Sarawak

On January 5, the airline also launched a specially designed 1Malaysia AirAsia aircraft livery to commemorate the start of the 1Malaysia Integration Programmeon in conjunction with the Malaysia.n government

The special livery bore a painting of the different faces in multi-racial Malaysia on the tail of an Airbus A320 aircraft, which will ply routes served by the airline in over 70 destinations.

 Malaysia Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who launched the programme, said the 1Malaysia concept, emphasised being inclusive and realising the potential of the country as one community.

“AirAsia is a living example of the success of the concept of 1Malaysia, it is truly a 1Malaysia outfit.”

Fernandes added the 1Malaysia concept formed “part of the DNA” of the company.

Under the newly launched programme AirAsia offered 10,000 free flights for one month between Sabah, Sarawak and the peninsula between January 14 and February 4, 2013. The free seats are only valid for flights departing from Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Labuan, Sandakan, Miri, Tawau Sibu, Bintulu, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Johor Bahru.

The free return tickets, which are for all Malaysians, opened for booking on January 9 for 24 hours and were snapped up by 11 am on the same day.

AirAsia chief executive officer Aireen Omar said of the offer, “This is our way of giving back to the rakyat (citizens) for their support, and will be the first of many more of such efforts to come from AirAsia.”