AirAsia has announced that its Board of Directors has unanimously approved senior leadership changes, which is in line with AirAsia Group’s new digitalisation strategy. Aireen Omar, AirAsia Berhad’s current CEO, will be promoted to Deputy Group CEO – Digital, Transformation, Corporate Services.
Aireen’s appointment signals AirAsia’s determination to successfully transform itself from an aviation company into a digital corporation, which also underlines the fact that AirAsia is restructuring its priorities to optimally maximise the enormous potential of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Digital transformation will be Aireen’s priority, where she will be spearheading the non-airline companies. Additionally, Aireen will oversee strategic group-wide initiatives and help transform AirAsia into a global, cloud-driven product and platform company. She will also be responsible for AirAsia’s digital strategy, promoting innovation throughout the group and encouraging collaboration across AirAsia’s businesses and markets.
With the appointment, Aireen will continue to lead the corporate services sector for the AirAsia group, which includes risk management, government affairs and corporate development, reporting directly to Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, AirAsia Group CEO (effective 10 January 2018).
Aireen joined AirAsia in January 2006 as Director of Corporate Finance, portfolio expanding quickly to also include Treasury, Fuel Procurement and Investor Relations functions. She was promoted to Regional Head of Corporate Finance, Treasury and Investor Relations, and was also appointed as member of the Safety Review Board. She was appointed AirAsia Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director effective 1 July 2012.
The airline also announced the appointment of Captain Adrian Jenkins, current Group Director, Flight Operations as Chief Operations Officer, who will be reporting to Bo Lingam, Deputy Group CEO of AirAsia (Airline business). In his new role, Captain Adrian will be responsible for Group functions for Ground Operations, Engineering, Safety, Security, QA, NMC and customer experience, and will drive AirAsia Group’s On Time Performance (OTP) and overall customer experience.
In addition, the airline also announced the appointment of Rozman Omar, current Deputy Group CEO, Strategy and MNA as the Executive Director of AirAsia International Limited (AAIL), which is a holding company of all AirAsia group investments in its overseas joint ventures.
Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, AirAsia Group CEO said: “The new appointments brings focus to both our core airline business as well as our digital growth businesses. Having Bo Lingam lead the airline business, brings continued strength to our operations, serving close to 70 million guests per year. And with Aireen driving on our non-airline and digital businesses, it brings focus on disruptive growth for our new businesses. With her insights into the industry gained over the past many years, her ability to discover new ways and many successes on her resume, Aireen is the perfect person to lead our digitalisation plan”.
He also commented that the promotion of Captain Adrian Jenkins as Chief Operations Officer will bring operational efficiency to a whole new level across the group, as he is a great example of internal talent development that grew with the company to take on a critical role.
