KUALA LUMPUR, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- AirAsia, the largest budget airline in Asia, has named Riad Asmat as the new chief executive officer (CEO) for its Malaysia-based operations, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Aireen Omar, the current CEO, will be promoted to deputy group CEO of digital, transformation, corporate services.
AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes said at a press conference that the senior leadership changes are in line with the AirAsia group's new digitalization strategy.
"The new appointments bring focus to both our core airline business as well as our digital growth businesses," he said.
Fernandes also expects the full results of digitalization to be seen in 2018, and it may save 5 percent to 10 percent of the group's operating cost.
The group is also looking for potential partners, including China's Alibaba and Tencent, for digitalization, he said.
AirAsia has also on Wednesday announced the appointment of Adrian Jenkins, current group director of flight operations as chief operations officer. Bo Lingam will be the deputy group CEO of AirAsia.
It also announced Rozman Omar, current deputy group CEO for strategy, merger and acquisition, as executive director of AirAsia International Limited, which is a holding company of all AirAsia group investments in its overseas joint ventures.
All the senior leadership changes will be effective January 10, 2018, according to the statement.
