AirAsia Expedia to shift focus with new CEO

MANILA, Philippines - AirAsia Expedia (AAE), the world’s best low cost airline AirAsia and the world’s largest online travel company Expedia group, is set to shift its focus over the next five years as it named its new chief executive officer.

AirAsia Group chief executive officer Tony Fernandes said in a statement that the company is set to change its strategy over the next five years by focusing on other businesses with the appointment of Kathleen Tan as the new chief executive.

“Our focus for the next five years is ancillary and adjacent business. The potential of AirAsia Expedia is enormous,” he stressed.

In this role, Tan would oversee the Expedia brand, AirAsiaGo, and Backick online travel agency businesses in Southeast Asia, India, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.

 â€œKathleen came to Malaysia not knowing anything about aviation, but her determination has led her to overcome every challenge and today she holds the pulse of Asia’s travel market. As AirAsia progress towards the second decade of success, we feel comfortable in letting Kathleen move to AirAsia Expedia,” he added.

Tan is no stranger to the online travel agency industry, having managed the AirAsiaGo business profitably prior to it being transferred to the AirAsia Expedia joint venture.

She drove the joint venture formation discussions with the Expedia group, representing AirAsia, and has served on AAE’s board of directors since day one.

“Asian consumers can look forward to the widest range of travel products at great prices with AirAsia Expedia,” Tan said.

“We are thrilled to have a business leader of Kathleen’s caliber join the AirAsia Expedia joint venture.  She has an impressive track record in building AirAsia into Asia’s biggest low-cost carrier over the past eight years, and we are delighted to have those skills brought to the AirAsia Expedia joint venture,” said Expedia group president and CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.

Tan previously served as AirAsia’s Group head of Commercial and senior vice president of China since 2004, acting as Group chief executive officer and co-founder Tony Fernandes’s right-hand woman managing AirAsia’s top-line performance and overseeing up to fifteen departments across the six AirAsia-branded airlines.  During the past eight years, Tan’s strategic vision, boldness, and leadership have grown AirAsia’s revenue 20-fold to over $3.5 billion in 2012. 

She has scaled up AirAsia’s network from less than 20 planes to nearly 130 planes, creating the number one low-cost carrier in Asia-Pacific, the biggest airline network in Southeast Asia, and the top foreign low cost carrier into China.