AirAsia achieved another world record, by selling more than 500,000 seats in 24 hours

Sepang, 11 August 2010 – AirAsia achieved another world record, by selling more than 500,000 seats in 24 hours!

The airline sold its record-breaking 538,000 seats yesterday, the first day of its Mind Blowing Fare campaign, which offers a mind-boggling RM1* airfare for domestic and international flights.

AirAsia bested its previous record of 390,000 seats sold in a day, achieved when it ran its Free Seats campaign across the entire AirAsia Group (AirAsia Berhad, Indonesia AirAsia and Thai AirAsia) last November.

Also yesterday, AirAsia recorded its highest number of seat sales in an hour, selling 36,871 seats, a 47.5% increase from the previous record of 25,000.

The ongoing Mind Blowing Fare promotion offers RM1* airfare for bookings made from 10 – 15 August 2010 for travel between 1 April and 11 August 2011. 

 The promotion is available exclusively at www.airasia.com and mobile.airasia.com.

AirAsia credits New Skies, its new state-of-the-art booking system, for achieving the record-breaking numbers. New Skies, launched by the airline last month, has greatly expanded the airline’s booking capacity, allowing up to almost 1 million flight bookings a day.

The Mind Blowing Fare is AirAsia’s first major promotion using the New Skies system. The successful sale of more than half a million seats in the ongoing promotion shows that the new system is stable and able to efficiently handle massive sales volume.

Tony Fernandes, Group CEO of AirAsia, said, “AirAsia’s investment in the new booking engine is clearly paying off. Our New Skies system has revolutionized our internet booking. Now, we are able to give guests greater flexibility in booking their flights and the ability to directly manage their bookings. AirAsia is going from strength to strength.”

“We’re happy to offer guests the opportunity to grab the special offers under our Mind Blowing Fare campaign. The campaign is especially attractive with festive holidays, such as Hari Raya, coming up,” he added.

The Mind Blowing Fare campaign gives guests the chance to fly for RM1* to domestic destinations such as Alor Setar, Johor Bahru, Kota Bahru, Langkawi and Penang. 

Other sexy destinations in the ASEAN region that are also going for the price of RM1* include Krabi, Phuket, Singapore, Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Yogyakarta, Bandung, Brunei, Hatyai and Ho Chi Minh City. Guests wanting to explore destinations beyond ASEAN may opt to head for Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Trichy, Guilin, Haikou and Macau.

AirAsia’s offer does not stop at RM1* fares, but continues with greater deals from AirAsiaGo.com with free room nights across exciting domestic and international destinations. Guests must log on to www.airasiago.com from 10 – 15 August 2010 and book for travel between 1 April and 11 August 2011 in order for a chance to grab the free room nights.

The buzz over AirAsia’s Mind Blowing Fare campaign was created largely by AirAsia through its social media channels, which boast of a follower base of 600,000 largely from eight countries.