Melo Villareal
AirAsia Gives Free Flights to Asean Olympic Gold Medalists
Leading Asian budget carrier, AirAsia, announced free flights given for life to Asean athletes who bagged golds at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil.
Apart from gold medalists, the company will also honor the achievements of silver and bronze medalists by giving them free flights for specific time. Silver medalists will get free flights for five years while bronze medalists can fly for free for two years.
As a silver medalist, Hidilyn Diaz, the Filipino weight-lifting athlete who brought honor to the Philippines will receive AirAsia flights at no cost for five years after bagging her medal for the 53-kilogram weightlifting event class.
Diaz together with other athletes will find it possible to travel to over 120 destinations covered by AirAsia and AirAsia X. Countries and cities to travel to are located in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Australia.
Tony Fernandes, AirAsia Group CEO, commended the athletes for their performance. He reported that he was blown away by the athletes’ performance, including Sopita Tanasan and Sukanya Srisurat of Thailand. Liliyana Natsir and Tontowi Ahmad of Indonesia also impressed the CEO. The same thing goes for Hoang Xuan Vinh and Joseph Schooling, the first gold medalists for Vietnam and Singapore, respectively.
According to Fernandes, the athletes proved that anything is achievable as long as people believe in themselves and extend extra effort in attaining their dreams. He also commented that AirAsia shares the same goal of being the best among the best and these winning athletes taught them that they should always continue to be better by trying. Offering them free flights is the least thing the company can do for these athletes, he added.
Fernandes also said that Asean athletes showed that they can’t only compete but also win medals in competitions like the recently held event in Rio de Janeiro. He hopes that these athletes’ achievements will inspire and encourage other aspiring athletes in their respective regions to follow their legacy. Fernandes is also looking forward to seeing more winning Asean athletes in future sporting events.
AirAsia, being an achiever in its own right, is currently the largest budget carrier in Asia. This statistic is measured by the number of people who booked their flights, number of fleets that are currently in operation, and expanded frequencies with its network. It’s currently the only airline that has direct flights to all 10 Asean countries together with other 60 unique routes in the Asian region.
AirAsia is providing updates to people looking for cheaper flights through its Facebook account and Twitter account.
