Competitive Strategy of AirAsia

This paper investigates the competitive strategy of AirAsia, focusing on its internal and external analysis, major competitors, and positioning strategy. It discusses the strengths and weaknesses of AirAsia, as well as the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors affecting the airline industry in Asia. The paper also provides recommendations for AirAsia to become a market leader in the industry.

Competitive Strategy of AirAsia
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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Internal analysis of Air Asia........................................................................................................................2
PESTEL analysis of Air Asia......................................................................................................................3
The PESTEL analysis of Air Asia in Asia are discussed in more detail as follows:....................................5
Industry analysis of Air Asia using Porter's five forces model....................................................................7
Major competitors and their key characteristics (comparative table).........................................................10
Summary of the results of internal and external analysis using the SWOT framework.............................13
Summary of internal analysis....................................................................................................................14
The positioning of Air Asia's competitive strategy on the strategy clock framework................................16
Recommendations.....................................................................................................................................17
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................18
Appendices................................................................................................................................................19
References.................................................................................................................................................21

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Introduction
The primary purpose of the paper is to investigate about Air Asia and how it has managed to its
competitive advantage to become a top budget airline in Asia. Air Asia was founded in 1993
which provides commercial operations. It is popularly known as Asia's largest no frills, no fare
airline, and Malaysia's cost airline. It gives aircraft benefits globally as well as locally. Its vision
is to become the highest low-cost airline in Asia and to assist 3 billion individuals dealing with
high fares and low connectivity.
Therefore, the paper will conduct an internal analysis of Air Asia by highlighting its strengths
and weaknesses. It will also conduct an external analysis with the help of PESTEL and Porter's
five forces model. It will help in identifying the major competitors of Air Asia in the airline
industry. The paper will provide a summary of the results of internal and external analysis and
will discuss how effectively it manages its internal core competencies. Moreover, it will discuss
the competitive positioning strategy used by the company to become a budget airline in Asia.
Therefore, based on its weaknesses, the paper will also provide recommendations that will be
helpful for the company to become a market leader in the airline industry.
Internal analysis of Air Asia
The internal analysis of Air Asia based on its strengths and weaknesses are as follows:
Strengths
Strengths refer to each business operations which gives it an upper hand over its rivals. There
possess some of the unique strengths of Air Asia that other organizations are unable to beat
them. Its significant strengths are its low maintenance and operational cost that helps the
company to implement a low-cost fare model for enhancing satisfaction of customer. The
company’s low operational cost is on account of utilization of quick check, no frill and online
reservation system that helps Air Asia to minimize its operational cost (Pearson, Pitfield and
Ryley, 2015). The company also possess effective management team where its operation is
managed by the director of the company who has the experience of minimizing the expenditures
in the low-cost environment.

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Air Asia has amazing technology substructure which helps execute the business within the low-
cost market. Another strength of the organization is its low traveling cost of 0.23% per kilometer
and a breakdown load factor of 52% across the world. Due to its low cost, it can target
consumers who prefer using non-craft modes such as, car, trains, bus to travel to distances. The
company has a compelling media and promoter of advertising (Pereira and Caetano, 2015). The
promotional events of Air Asia attract a wide range of consumers. Furthermore, it also provides
cleanliness environment, secure safety and comfortable seats for the passengers.
Weaknesses
The significant weakness of Air Asia is the adoption of expensive modern technologies that need
a great amount of investment. On the other hand, increasing oil price is also determined to be a
possible threat for the company as it maximizes its operative cost. As a result, because of such a
low-cost approach, the organization possess less number of employees than other competitors in
the market. The flight times of Air Asia are restricted to 2.5 hours, thus they are unable to
operate extended duration flights without any frill (Ko, 2016). Hence, it becomes impossible for
the company to implement no-frill for passengers. Moreover, the company does not possess its
maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facility.
The company is required to take adequate actions of confirmation like constant maintenance of
planes by maintaining the entire cost. This is considered to be a competitive disadvantage that
the company does not possess its personal belongings of MRO facility that creates various
difficult situations. At the same time, the company receives various complaints from its
consumers regarding their services (Sengpoh, 2015). For example, Air Asia receives complaints
related to flight delays, unable to provide refund or change flight if consumers could not make it
and be charged for several things. Air Asia does not have too many routes as compared to their
rivals.
PESTEL analysis of Air Asia
SR/
No.
Factors Description
1. Political factors  Challenging to fly outside Malaysia
 Bilateral agreements affect Pan-Asia budget

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carriers
 Navigation and landing charges are costlier in
Asia-pacific region (Buaphiban and Truong, 2017)
 Unavailability of low-cost secondary airports
 Bilateral air rights agreements influence Air-Asia
2. Economic factors  Economic growth in the Asia-pacific region
 Improved cost of living
 Air Asia faces competition with Malaysian Airline
 Economic downturn in the Asia-pacific region
(Whyte and Lohmann, 2015)
 Development and growth in Asia-pacific region
due to low-cost fare model
3. Social factors  An increasing number of population and tourist in
the Asia-Pacific region
 The region supports the development and growth
of the airline industry
 Emphasizes on Safety First
 Follows high-quality standards for offering the
best services (Fu, Oum, Chen and Lei, 2015)
 Offers high-quality services in a cost-effective
way
4. Technology factors  Advancement of technology in the Asia-Pacific
region
 Air Asia introduced an online program
 It facilitates online services for air ticketing to
Asia-pacific customers
 Improved extra capacity and fuel efficiency
5. Environmental factors  Asia-Pacific region offers the various latest
technology and no-frills services
 The regions possess carbon emission and noise

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pollution (Silove, 2016)
 Inadequate measures to control pollution
 Such factors negatively affect the company
6. Legal factors  Enormous growth opportunity in Asia-Pacific
regions due to market liberalization
 Maximized legal concerns for the airline industry
 Air Asia has to meet the legal policies and needs
 Increasing competition in the external market
The PESTEL analysis of Air Asia in Asia are discussed in more detail as follows:
Political factors
Air Asia realized that it is critical for them to fly outside Malaysia due to the political influence
of Asia-Pacific regions. As a result, political influence is determined to be instrumental in the
airline industry towards the growth of aviation, especially in Asia. Government support for
minimal restrictions and national carriers on relocation is relevant for the growth of the airline
industry. On the other hand, the regions in Asia does not possess strong security controls that
need to be maintained to build the reliability of the airline (Chiu, Liu and Tu, 2016). The double-
sided agreements are determined to be the major barriers in low-cost carriers of Air Asia.
Economic factors
Increasing economic growth rates in Asia may propel the airline industry to a great extent. It will
also increase regional urbanization that leads to the creation of a new destination and new urban
centers. Such a hostile promotion of regional tourism industry will enhance regional travel and
enhance economic growth for Air Asia. Fuel prices are too high in Asia-Pacific regions that will
decrease the profitability and yield for Air Asia.
Social factors
Multiethnic people live in different regions of Asia who speaks different languages. As a result,
the tourism rate is high for Asian regions. This creates increased awareness within the people
regarding travels and holidays. The people living in Asian regions do not prefer costlier airlines.

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An increasing number of educated people, tourists and population result in the development of
the airline industry. Thus, the company has adopted Safety First to ensure security to guests and
staff, maintain high standards and comply with the regulatory agencies.
Technological factors
The Asian regions are highly advanced in using the latest technologies to provide convenient and
high-quality services to the customers. However, the company serves online services such as
travel insurance, car hire, hotel bookings and air ticketing to its customers. It also offers booking
services through internet to keep cost in check. It has also created GO Holiday an online program
where customers can easily book holiday packages online (Delbari, Ng, Aziz and Ho, 2016).
Thus, technological factors have maximized airline efficacy in various countries in Asian
regions.
Environmental factors
The increasing population in the Asian regions largely affects the sales of Air Asia that in turn
affects the customers who seek affordable services. The demand for services and products in
Asian regions have also increased to a great extent. However, Air Asia takes this as an
opportunity to enlarge its operation (Airasia.com, 2019). Thus, Air Asia has implemented
various environmental friendly services while operating in Asian regions.
Legal factors
In the Asian regions market liberalization has provided various growth opportunities for the
company. Meanwhile, it has also maximized the legal concerns for the airline industry. Thus, to
execute its business processes in various regions of Asia, it needs to fulfill the legal policies and
requirements. Most of the Asian countries have adopted The Competition Act 2010 to eliminate
the three major pillars (Bowen Jr, 2016). This will affect the company as it increases competition
within the market.

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Figure: Growth of international passenger for Air Asia in the Asia-Pacific region
(Source: Wang, So and Sparks, 2017)
Industry analysis of Air Asia using Porter's five forces model
Porters Five-Forces Model is widely implemented by Air Asia to progress its strategies within
the market. The composite of five forces will be explained below based on the nature of
competition facing by the company.
SR/No. Five forces Description
1. Bargaining power of supplier  High bargaining power of supplier in Asia
 Availability of suppliers is limited
 Switching cost of airplanes is high
 Only two suppliers are in operation, Airbus
and Boeing
 Power of suppliers is high as Air Asia is
reliable upon Airbus engineers
2. Bargaining power of buyer  Moderately high bargaining power of buyer
in Asia
 No differentiation in the services
 Low costs of switching
 A limited portion of buyers spend on airline

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3. Threat from substitutes  Provide unique services in Asia
 Considerable cost
 Moderately high threat of substitutes in Asia
 Asia has made air travel a suitable, feasible
and effective mode of transportation
 Consumers may prefer to buy a premium
airline that offers a comfortable facility
4. The threat from new entrants  The moderately high threat from new entrants
in Asia
 Government restrictions and capital
requirements
 Weak customer loyalty
 High Start-up cost
 Diversification in services offered
5. Competitive rivalry  The moderately high intensity of rivalry in
Asia
 Increased number of competitors
 High exit cost and fixed cost
 Offers similar services to customers
Porters five forces model will be discussed in more detail below:
Bargaining power of supplier
In Asia the bargaining power of supplier of the airline industry is high whereas, the availability
of suppliers is relatively limited. There possess only two aircraft suppliers in the airline industry
they are Airbus and Boeing. Presently, most of the aircraft of Air Asia are using Airbus model as
Airbus is utilizing advanced technology in creating aircraft. As the company depends upon
Airbus engineers for seeking advice and maintaining aircraft, thus the power of supplier is high
(Lindstad, Asbjørnslett and Strømman, 2016).

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Bargaining power of buyer
Asia does not possess switching cost for consumers who seek to move from one budget airline to
another. Hence the bargaining power of the buyer is moderately high. There is no variance in the
product, whereas the only difference is the packages offered by airlines. Hence, consumers who
are not interested in joining travel agencies switch to Air Asia that offers holiday packages. The
bargaining power of the buyer is as powerful as the switching cost of Air Asia is low.
Threat from substitutes
Even though there possess various substitutes like ship and train, the geographical aspects of
Asia has made air travel an appropriate, sustainable and well-organized mode of transportation.
Thus, the threat from substitutes is moderately high in Asian regions. However, the airline
industry in Asia possesses two types of substitutes such as direct and indirect substitutes (Ali,
Kim and Ryu, 2016). Due to such direct and indirect substitutes, most of the customers prefer
premium airline such as Air Asia which provides a comfortable facility.
The threat from new entrants
The threat from new entrants and entry barriers is moderately high like, government restrictions
and capital requirements which are known as air service agreements. Asia consist of an
increasing number of airline rivals likes Tiger Airways and Jet Star which offers low-cost fare
that in turn affects Air Asia’s customer loyalty. However, the company has extended its product
line by offering a tourism package and selling tickets. It should have strong relationship with
tourism companies and hotels across Asia.
Competitive rivalry
Competitive rivalry is moderately high because of increased competition with more rivals who
want a portion from this growing high exit cost and lucrative market. Currently, Air Asia is
facing competition with 59 low fare airlines like Jet Star Airways, Air Arabia, Tiger Airways,
JAL Express and many more. They might compete by their route offered as compared to Air
Asia that will help attract more number of customers (Fageda, Suau-Sanchez and Mason, 2015).
The company may constant in price minimization to compete with rivals. On the other hand,

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high exit cost makes the airline industry very competitive. As a result, the company has extended
its hotel booking services.
Figure: Porter’s Five Forces Analysis of Air Asia
(Source: Min and Joo, 2016)
Major competitors and their key characteristics (comparative table)
SR/
No.
Factors Air Asia Firefly Singapore
Airlines
Thai
Airways
Malaysian
Airlines
1. Aircraft 180 leather
seats by
using
Airbus
A320
68-74seats by
using ATR72-
500
31 seats by
using Airbus
A350
80 seats
by using
Boeing
747-400
247 seats by
using
Boeing 777-
200ER
2. In-flight
dining
Huge range
of snacks
and light
meals for
buying
onboard
Complimentar
y snacks and
drinks
A wide range
of special
meals for
buying
onboard
Special
meals
Customized
meals for
buying
onboard
3. Positionin
g
No frills,
short hauls,
low cost
Community
airlines,
amazing value
Premium
economy
class, in-
Modern.
Schedulin
g and
Charter
arrangement
s, potential

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with low fares flight
entertainmen
t, huge
distribution
network
safety, a
renowned
airline
rates,
flexible
flight
schedule
4. Check-in
baggage
Every
checked-in-
baggage is
charged
RM5 with
15kg
baggage
limit
20kg baggage
limit with no
check-in fees
32kg
baggage with
no check-in
fees
50 kg
baggage
with no
check-in
fees
30kg
baggage
with no
check-in
fees
5. Seat
option
Free
seating
with
Xpress
boarding
option
Allotted
seating
Allotted
seating
Free
seating
Charging for
preferred
seat
selection
6. Seat type Single Seat
(Economy
class)
Single Seat
(Economy
class)
Single Seat
(Economy
class)
Single
Seat
(Economy
class)
Single Seat
(Economy
class)
7. Operating
flights
Internation
al and
domestic
flights
Between
Selangor to
Penang
Between
Kuala
Lumpur and
London
Between
Kuala
Lumpur
and
Bangkok
In same
routes
Table: Comparative table of Air Asia’s competitors

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Figure: World’s lowest cost Airline-Air Asia vs. Peers
(Source: Dai, Derudder and Liu, 2018)
The characteristics of Air Asia’s competitors are as follows:
Firefly
It is a full-service point-to-point carrier and entirely owned subordinate of Malaysian airlines. It
focuses on serving Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. It is the first community
airline of Malaysia. It operates international and domestic flights.
Singapore Airlines
It is an international organization that provides air transportation services to its customers. It is a
defender as it maintains a differentiated position within the market. It introduced two budget
airlines such as Tiger Airways and ValueAir to compete with Air Asia (Simón, 2016). The
budget airlines maintain low-cost position within the market.

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Thai Airways
It is the nationwide carrier of Thailand that operates international, local and domestic flights. It
aims to provide high-quality service to premium passengers, by maintaining a strong position in
its major product markets. It is the first carrier in Asia that uses biofuels to fly commercial
flights.
Malaysian Airlines
It is a government-supported carrier that focuses on international flights. It provides multiclass
scheduled services to over 100 international and domestic destination (Huxley and Schreer,
2017). It is a market leader in Malaysia. It aims to compete with the budget airline industry such
as Air Asia.
Summary of the results of internal and external analysis using the SWOT framework
Strengths Weaknesses
 Consistent and Steady
 Weekly flights
 Successful cost-cutting
 Extensive coverage in Asia-Pacific
region
 Innovation in services
 Reputed brand name
 Good connection with the largest
commercial organizations
 Generated unique image (Singh,
2016)
 Media-friendly perception
 Low maintenance and operational
cost
 Number of sears per aircraft
 Challenges in maintaining the quality
of service with pricing
 Low profits
 Sustaining costs
 Do not possess MRO facility
 Increasing the cost of oil
 Receiving various complaints
 Risk of system disruption
 A limited number of human resources
 Regulation on airport
 Interference from government
 Limited service resources

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Opportunities Threats
 Huge potential market
 Differentiation in services
 Availability of regional
international flights
 New routes
 Low Fares
 Use of Airbus A320
 Introducing SMS ticket booking
 High level of commitment
 The surge in foreign travel
 Terrorist attack and accidents
 The increased cost of fuel
 Government policy
 Airport departure, landing and
security charges
 The threat from competitors such as
Malaysian airlines and Singapore
airlines
 Costs of management (Pearson,
O'Connell, Pitfield and Ryley, 2015)
 Increasing competition in the Asia-
Pacific region
Summary of internal analysis
By its internal analysis, it has been recognized that Air Asia is located within distinctive cycle
markets where it receives a competitive advantage for its business strategies and policies. The
major strength of the company is to offer greater services and products with low cost to its
customers. By analyzing its weaknesses, it can be said that the company must focus upon its
competencies and core values and re-evaluate its strategies (Ke, Windle, Han and Britto, 2015).
The company must reconsider its specific routes and market to acquire value as compared to
cost.
Summary of external analysis
Based on its external analysis it has been observed that Air Asia possess various opportunities to
expand its market in Asia. The company is required to explore its trade profitability and macro
environment. It can be seen that in the Asia-Pacific region market liberalization has provided
various opportunities for the company. Such opportunities in Asia helps in the expansion and
improvement of the company. Moreover, the increasing competition within the external
marketplace is determined to be one of the major aspects for the company in Asia (Simón, 2015).
Therefore, it can be evaluated that liberalization of market has influenced Air Asia both

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negatively and positively. Thus, the success of Air Asia is because of the willingness of the
company to take the risk to execute its business in different countries in Asia. This strategy
provides a huge cost and reduces cost.
Discussion of how Air Asia manages its strategic fit to its internal core competencies
In the past few years, Air Asia has grown into a dramatic pace where technology has allowed the
company to increase from 2 million passengers to 7.7 million passengers. The company made
use of Open skies which is a combined inventory system and web-based reservation. It involves
airport departure control, call center, and internet (Kim and Park, 2017).
Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP)
Recently, Air Asia has adopted a full-fledged ERP system to speed up reporting, minimize
month-end closing dispensation times, and maintain data recovery and integrity methods.
Air Asia credit card
The company provides a option of credit facilities that fit into their consumers travel lifestyle
such as, holidays, training, leisure and business. With the availability of Air Asia credit card, the
customers get the opportunity to buy services or goods online while traveling anywhere
throughout the world.
Go Holiday services
The company has created a service known as Go Holiday, by using e-commerce that helps
display car rental services, average class hotels, and holiday resorts in different countries.
Utilizing e-commerce provides customers an opportunity to make and select a travel and holiday
arrangements with a hotel of their class and choice (Lin, 2015). The payments could be made
through the internet by using online e-payment methods and credit cards based on travel time.
Foreign contractors and workers strategy
The company targets the foreign contractors as well as workers from Macau, China, Thailand
and Singapore who fails to meet the expense of costly flights. Thus, Air Asia provides them the
opportunity by offering cheap fare that would attract most of the customers to travel within the
flight without paying much.

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The positioning of Air Asia's competitive strategy on the strategy clock framework
The competitive positioning strategy of Air Asia is based on two levels of positions such as, re-
positioning the company as a brand itself and de-positioning its rivals in the airline's industry. In
the re-positioning strategy, the company aims to target itself within the airline industry as an
efficient, affordable, low-cost carrier and no frills of full-service cost flights. While branding,
they use the slogan "Now everyone can fly" to ensure consumers that flying is now a reasonable
and viable option under their flagship (Rezaei, Hemmes and Tavasszy, 2017). By providing free
seats at the time of certain events or celebrations helps the company to grab the attention of more
number of customers rather than enabling them to move towards other options. The objective
behind these strategies creates amazing extents of competitive awareness in the seats.
Another positioning strategy involves de-positioning the competitors within the airline's industry.
They made a plan to interact with the crowds related to the idea of offering economical low-cost
carrier, most affordable and cheapest airline. As a result, it is considered to be a budget airline
among other airlines in South East Asia. However, it also demonstrates the idea that Air Asia
provides quality services, is dynamic and efficient. The goal behind the de-positioning strategy is
to maximize the request for low-cost flights (Burghouwt and de Wit, 2015). The expansion of
Air Asia in South East Asia presents that they are ready to compete with other airlines as a part
of their path concept.
Figure: Competitive Strategy of Air Asia on the strategy clock framework
(Source: Suau-Sanchez, Voltes-Dorta and Rodríguez-Déniz, 2016)

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Recommendations
It is strongly recommended that Air Asia must explore its business in the international market of
East Asia. It has been observed that 8% of people within Asia-Pacific regions are business class,
thus the company must focus towards a recreational segment of the market. To become a leader
in the airline industry, Air Asia must analyze its current strategy. The company must make
significant changes to its strategy after appropriate feasibility and technical study to overcome
challenges or risks. The high price of oil is determined to be the major factor within the airline
industry. Hence Air Asia must make longer contracts with oil suppliers with more sustainability.
Additionally, Air Asia must use biofuels that will reduce carbon emissions. It is an
environmentally friendly product that can be used as an alternative when the fuel process is
likely to increase. This will help the company to increase the number of passengers.
It is significant for Air Asia to constantly build its brand equity and image that would not only
increase sales revenue but would also make the company a niche budget airline across the world.
This could be done by using marketing and advertising initiatives. Hence, in-flight marketing is
the best way for the company to attract its possible returners and first-time flyers to continue
flying with Air Asia. They must make efficient use of credit points, package holidays and
discounted tickets that would encourage consumers into flying more with Air Asia. This could be
executed within the aircraft where consumers will not be able to leave the premises. These
marketing initiatives could be created in the form of flyers or mini leaflets, so that allows
consumers to explore the options of the future holiday while boarding the flight to their present
holiday destination.
Furthermore, Air Asia must create aggressive promotional campaigns to standout in the aviation
market. In today's context, social media are widely used. Hence campaigns and efforts through
social media are effective ways to increase brand recognition and awareness. For example, Delta
Airlines has introduced booking tickets through Facebook; hence the same strategy could be
used by Air Asia by creating innovative campaigns. As the company operates their flight often,
thus they must have a space aircraft at every site to avoid delays. It is essential for the company
to determine the environmental friendly operational system like offsetting of carbon to protect
the environment.

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Conclusion
Air Asia follows low fare, hassle-free and no-frills business perception and belives that
maintaining low cost needs high efficacy in every part of the business. It gives every customer a
mindset that Air Asia is a low-cost airline, hence it becomes a first and best option for customers.
By studying it’s PESTAL and SWOT analysis, it has been observed that Air Asia build a
standard cycle market that helps them in getting a competitive advantage for its strategy and
business policy. It can be said that the company aims to provide high-quality services and
products to its huge customer base. It is recommended that Air Asia must focus upon their core
competencies and values and re-evaluate their strategies. It must determine their partucular
routes and market to gain a competitive advantage. Thus, for further growth of the company Air
Asia must introduce business class and add new routes to provide suitable options for its
customers all over Asia.

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Appendices
Figure: Air Asia Flight
(Source: Jiang and
Li, 2016)
Figure: Competitors of Air Asia
(Source: Chung, Ahn, Jeon and Van Thai, 2015)

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Figure: Low-cost carrier Air Asia
(Source: Boonekamp and Burghouwt, 2017)

21
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