How big is the brand "AirAsia"?

Some people around me always travel in flight due to their job. Hence, I'd heard a lots from them about AirAsia and MAS. And from their mouth, I know the conditions of the services and performances of these airlines.

Here are my observations on the growth in AirAsia during these years:

One or two years ago, people still don’t like AirAsia. They choose AirAsia just because it is cheap. People has a lots of complains like:

Attitude of its staff were bad.

The food on flight is not good enough.

It doesn’t assign seat numbers for passengers.

Boarding onto AirAsia’s flight is a bit mess up, just like getting on a bus.

Delays and cancellations are common.

Some rumors said that AirAsia sometimes combined the passengers of two flights into one.

Actually, most of these negative impressions arise from people’s over-expectation on AirAsia to meet the same standard as other airlines, because most people that took AirAsia didn’t have any experience with other LCC. They can only compare AirAsia to their previous experience with normal airline, especially MAS. We all know that, MAS is famous (worldwide) for its good service and excellent attitude. (always, I heard that MAS flight attendances are all quite beautiful too). In fact, MAS wins the Skytrax's Best Cabin Staff Award for many years. So, the quality of AirAsia’s services is just too bad as compared to MAS.

while AirAsia is keep improving, people now gradually get used to AirAsia’s no-frill style – no ticket, no assigned seat, no free meal, etc.

An important improvement of AirAsia is the reduction of delayed flight. AirAsia’s on time performance for the past six months is about 85%. Some of my friends now prefer AirAsia than MAS, even when they are on an official trip (means they don’t have to pay for the air tickets, their employers will pay for them), simply because they are fed up with the (infamous) flight-delays of MAS.

Another reason they prefer AirAsia is that AirAsia makes their schedules more flexible, because it has a higher flight frequency than MAS. They have more choice for the departure time.

So now, the name “AirAsia” means a lots.

1. It means “cheap”. This is the most sucessful brand image for AirAsia. When I fly, I definitely choose AirAsia; because I know that with AirAsia I'm having the lowest fare.
2. It also means “less delay”, as compared to MAS.
3. It means “more choice” for departure time, due to its high flight frequency.

AirAsia today has gradually become an airline that people prefer to fly with, not only due to the economic consideration. That’s what we call “the power of brand”.

Besides my own observations, there are some supporting points that AirAsia is a great brand:

1. In the new released World Airline Awards® year 2007, AirAsia ranks no.1 in Asia region for the Best Low-cost Airline Award. (The Skytrax’s World Airline Awards® are recognized around the world, and renowned for being the only truly global, Independent passenger survey of airline standards.)
2. Recently, a new AirAsia Credit Card was launched. The issuer of this new AirAsia’s card is Citibank. As we know, Citibank is the top-brand in credit card service. Citibank is now partnered with AirAsia...... I think this means something.
3. Couple of weeks ago, the Virgin’s Group announced that it’ll take up 20% in FAX. There are total five airlines under Virgin Group, each of them carry the word "Virgin" in their name, e.g. Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America, etc. But this time, instead of using its “Virgin” brand, FAX is renamed to "AirAsia X" to start its long-haul LCC business. As Tony said, “AirAsia brand is very big, bigger than Virgin out here.”