AirAsia Group CEO, Tony Fernandes, has welcomed the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out in Australia and the region, saying it’s the first key indicator of a global travel reboot in the near future.

“After a year of uncertainty, it’s great to see that this extremely challenging chapter is finally coming to a close,” he said.

Alongside Australia, the vaccination program is progressing in several AirAsia key markets, including Singapore, Indonesia and China, with Thailand and the Philippines set to follow in the coming months.

“AirAsia has spent the travel downtime period to put in place rigorous digital initiatives and innovative technologies that would make air travel even safer and more seamless post-COVID-19,” Fernandes said.

“Better testing, leisure travel bubbles, anti veil medicines and importantly, digital health passports providing a single tool for health records across Asia and beyond, are also coming soon, to support the global travel recovery.

“I am confident that AirAsia will recover faster than many due to our low cost model, position in the market and the fast-tracking of our digital transformation to become Asia’s leading travel and lifestyle superapp, which has helped to mitigate adverse effects from the pandemic.

“We have been through our fair share of crises in the past including starting out just after 9/11, SARS bird flu epidemics, tsunamis and earthquakes to name a few, but COVID-19 has by far, posed the most challenging situation we have ever experienced.

“Never before has there been such a restricted global travel environment. After a year of strict cost containment including exiting Japan and reducing our stake in India, finally there is light at the end of this very long tunnel.

“Through all of this, I am honoured to have led our incredibly resilient Allstars (staff) through what has been the most difficult of times and now I’m so excited to lead them through the recovery as we reinvent ourselves as the travel, tech and lifestyle super app of choice for Asia.

“We can look forward to a gradual recovery in 2021/2022 in all of our key markets and potentially a full recovery within the next two years,” Fernandes said.