AirAsia has partnered with 12Go, an Asia Pacific ground and sea transportation online travel agency, to enhance the end-to-end travel experience for users of the AirAsia super app.
With the launch of a “transport” category, the super app’s 10.6 million monthly app users gain access to 12Go’s operators and can now book trains, buses, ferries and private transfers, in addition to flights.
12Go, which was founded in 2012 and joined Bookaway Group in 2021, says it has more than 4,000 operators covering nearly 50,000 routes across 26 Asian countries. Local operators handle post-booking servicing.
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The company claims the deal makes AirAsia the world’s first super app to offer a complete journey experience, alongside other non-travel products like food and financial services, at scale.
Amanda Woo, CEO of AirAsias Super App, says that when getting to and from the airport, ground transportation “can make or break a trip.”
The partnership enables travelers to “organize every aspect of their trip in one place,” Woo says. “When it comes to the journey itself, ground transport is the final piece of the jigsaw for our users.”
By integrating 12Go’s technology, AirAsia accesses 12Go’s entire Asia inventory of ground and sea transportation options, coming just in time for Asia’s busy holiday season, which begins in October, the companies say.
Only 10% of bus, ferry and train tickets are booked digitally today, according to 12Go. Unlike with hotel and airline reservations, travelers often have to book ground and sea transportation in person.
Alexey Abolmasov, 12Go CEO, says the company’s mission is to make the ground and sea elements of a trip “simple to plan and book.”
“We intend to partner with the tech and travel ecosystems to put ground transport options in front of travelers wherever they choose to shop, by making our simple-to-deploy API available at scale.”
Abolmasov adds: “This is our largest deal to date where we open up our inventory to a third party, and I’m delighted these hardworking local transport businesses are now part of one of the world’s largest and fastest growing digital lifestyle providers.”
With local operators in 112 countries, Bookaway Group’s other brands include GetByBus, which serves Europe, and Plataforma10, which serves Latin America, among others.
Bookaway Group was founded in 2021 “based on a shared belief that the ground transport industry will better meet the needs of travelers when it is united, not fragmented,” according to the company.
Bookaway Group says it has raised more than $80 million from investors including Aleph, Corner Ventures, Entrée Capital, Red Dot Capital Partners, Tenere Capital and Menora Mivtachim.
In 2021, AirAsia boosted its super app with the creation of AirAsia Ride and the acquisition of Indonesian ride-hailing and payments firm Gojek’s business in Thailand. Later that same year, AirAsia added biometric facial recognition to its super app.
Earlier this year, Google Cloud signed a five-year agreement with AirAsia in a bid to develop technology and services for the carrier’s super app.
Meanwhile, Uber is moving closer to capturing the end-to-end travel journey by adding trains and car rentals and soon flights and hotels to the Uber app in the United Kingdom.