AirAsia CEO says company may launch flying-taxi business in 2022

With the airline business taking a hit from the coronavirus pandemic, AirAsia has been expanding in the digital space.

Malaysian budget airline AirAsia Group Bhd. said it is seeking to launch a flying-taxi business as soon as next year.

Tail of AirAsia X plane as seen at the Garuda Maintenance Facility AeroAsia in Tangerang, Indonesia. (Reuters)

“We are working on that right now,” Tony Fernandes, the company’s chief executive officer and co-founder, said Saturday. “I think we are about a year and a half away from launching.”

Fernandes was speaking in an online discussion as part of the Youth Economic Forum.

With the airline business taking a hit from the coronavirus pandemic, AirAsia has been expanding in the digital space. It launched a “super app” last year that offers services from travel and shopping to logistics and financial services.

“We took it as an opportunity, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to recast your business, re-look at things,” the CEO said.

AirAsia expects to start its own e-hailing services in April, Fernandes said. The flying taxis it hopes to begin providing next year will come with as many as four seats and will be powered by a quadcopter, he added.

Separately on Saturday, the company announced that it’s partnering with a state agency called the Malaysian Global Innovation and Creativity Centre to develop an urban drone delivery service.

“I hope interstate travel will start in the next two to three weeks” within Malaysia, he said. He expects international borders to start opening in July or August.