According to BusinessInsider.my, Tony Fernandes, CEO of AirAsia Group, has officially launched his latest fintech project BigPay.
On Thursday (March 15), chatting with fintech leaders on the Money 20/20 conference in Singapore, Fernandes confirmed that the implementation of BigPay, a brand new cashless payment system, will enable this low-cost carrier to make use of its services completely cashlessly in the longer term.
Soft launched earlier this yr, BigPay is a prepaid card that works like a daily credit and debit card and may be used for airline transactions. Users may also send digital money to one another without spending a dime, making budgeting easier for group travel.
BigPay co-founders Salim Dhanani and Christopher Davison initially approached Fernandes with the concept of making a breakthrough financial product using AirAsia’s massive amounts of knowledge.
Fernandes said throughout the presentation: “80 percent of our business still happens on AirAsia.com and we are very protective of that. And over the last few years, we have believed that the data we have collected has tremendous value, and that is why we are transforming our company into a digital company.”
A staunch supporter of innovation, Fernandes plans to copy his success with AirAsia’s “Now Everyone Can Fly” philosophy with BigPay in the subsequent few years, and even speculates that BigPay could turn out to be more worthwhile than AirAsia itself.
The cashless wallet is just step one in AirAsia’s plans to grow as a digital company.
In the longer term, Fernandes also plans to eliminate exchange rates for AirAsia passengers using BigPay, enter the remittance market and, last but not least, delve into the business lending business.
“Right now, anyone who wants to borrow has to mortgage their son and daughter to get a loan from the bank,” Fernandes joked.
“We believe we need to disrupt (the market) and create more entrepreneurs in the future.”
With a give attention to ASEAN and what he calls “high-resolution data”, Fernandes expressed hope to partner with more e-commerce firms across the region in the longer term.
The 53-year-old AirAsia Group chief is thought for taking the airline to previously unimaginable heights by buying it for 25 cents (RM1) while it was tens of millions in debt.
Since then, it has won the Skytrax award for best low-cost airline nine times in a row.
