It’s clear to see that the aviation trade has been badly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

In actual fact, there was lower than half the passenger visitors in the entire of 2020 as in comparison with 2019. Airways world wide subsequently have had no selection however to pivot to be able to survive.

For Southeast Asia’s low-cost service AirAsia, the pandemic served as a possibility for them to hurry up its digital transformation and evolve to transcend being simply an airline.

It has boldly dubbed itself as “the Asean tremendous app”, which now consists of an ecosystem of latest providers together with meals supply, grocery supply and even on-line purchasing, along with its ordinary lineup of flight tickets and lodge reserving providers.

On March 2, AirAsia meals made its debut in Singapore, marking its first abroad foray.

As the most recent participant in Singapore’s saturated meals supply market, how does it stack up towards the large gamers?

Preliminary Ideas And Expertise On AirAsia meals

When a brand new participant joins the sector — very similar to when Gojek first entered Singapore — customers are undoubtedly excited on the prospects of an extra possibility for them to select from, and promo codes to entice new customers.

For AirAsia meals, it’s providing free limitless meals supply till March 16 — that is relevant just for deliveries inside 8km from the order level.

At launch, AirAsia meals is that includes about 80 eating places, together with Swee Choon Tim Sum Restaurant, No Signboard Seafood, The Shepherd’s Pie, Maki-san, Pizza Categorical and extra.

One other 300 eating places will probably be onboarded onto the platform at a later stage.

Though there are not any promo codes per se, the lure of free supply is sufficient to entice customers to a minimum of obtain the app and take a look at the meals choices out there.

Screenshot from Apple App Retailer

Nevertheless, I used to be disillusioned with my virgin AirAsia app expertise — it was very laggy and took awhile to load. Apparently, I wasn’t the one one to expertise this, as seen by the app opinions on Apple App Retailer.

So as to add on, the situation function appears buggy. It couldn’t detect my precise deal with and precisely checklist the close by eating places. Nevertheless, it appeared to work wonderful on the internet platform.

My takeaway is that the app is just not but optimised and requires an replace. If you wish to try AirAsia meals, go online to airasia.com/meals as a substitute of downloading their app.

So as to add on, the interface (for each cellular and internet platforms) is just not very user-friendly.

Screenshot from AirAsia app

As an illustration, the checklist of eating places is just not sorted in response to distance. On the high of the web page, I’m being advisable eating places which are 15km away from my location.

A fast workaround to that is to filter the checklist of choices by distance — whenever you filter to 8km, you’re technically proven eating places which are eligible for the free supply promo.

Regardless, the prevailing meals choices may be very restricted and I truly noticed value discrepancies between two identical manufacturers from completely different retailers for a similar menu.

The primary time spherical, I attempted ordering from 7 Wonders restaurant and it seems that it solely accepted pre-orders (nevertheless it didn’t have the pre-order tag on the listings web page). So as to add on, the earliest timing for the pre-order supply was 1.30pm to 2pm, which is manner after my lunch hour.

Once I tried ordering from AirAsia meals once more on one other day, the fee web page took very lengthy to load (greater than 15 minutes). It was such a protracted wait that I ended up giving up on the order and exiting the app.

A Comparability Towards Its Key Rivals

AirAsia meals goals to present higher worth by providing low-cost choices, very similar to the mantra of the finances airline.

It’s charging eating places solely 15 per cent fee per supply, which is way decrease than rivals GrabFood, Foodpanda and Deliveroo, which ranges between 25 to 35 per cent.

AirAsia meals reasoned that decrease fee charges will result in extra financial savings, that are handed on to the customers.

Whereas the number of eating places is presently not as huge as the opposite gamers, it’s a short-term drawback that can steadily diminish as new retailers come onboard.

Furthermore, with low fee charges, extra retailers are anticipated to leap on AirAsia meals.

AirAsia meals vs the important thing meals supply gamers in Singapore / Picture Credit score: Vulcan Put up

Whereas AirAsia meals stated that its supply charge is “5 per cent decrease” for purchasers as in comparison with different platforms, it cited supply charges ranging between S$2.99 and S$20.

It’s additionally worthy to notice that Deliveroo and foodpanda ship inside a restricted radius of 2km to 6m, whereas GrabFood delivers islandwide just for chosen companions.

In distinction, AirAsia meals presents supply from eating places as much as 20km away. An even bigger supply radius nonetheless, will imply an extended supply time. This might clarify why it guarantees supply inside 60 minutes.

Acknowledging that a one-hour supply time is prolonged, AirAsia meals has stated that it’ll attempt to shorten it over time.

Picture Credit score: AirAsia

To shorten the supply time, AirAsia meals must beef up its fleet of riders. It has recruited solely 500 riders now (whereas GrabFood, Deliveroo and foodpanda has hundreds of riders), however goals to double that quantity by third quarter of 2021.

The primary distinction you’ll discover on AirAsia meals in comparison with different platforms is the lack to trace your order in real-time.

AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes sees this ‘maps’ function as an “pointless frill” that may assist to maintain working prices and costs low. He added that clients can nonetheless chat with their riders in-app to search out out the standing of their supply.

One other fascinating function of AirAsia meals is that clients can earn reward factors that can be utilized for AirAsia flights.

Clients can earn 1 BIG level for each S$zero.30 spent, and redeem 405 BIG factors for each S$1 (or 125 BIG factors for each S$1 till March 16). That is equal to a rebate of zero.eight per cent (or 2.7 per cent till March 16).

That is nothing distinctive to AirAsia meals although — you can too earn airline miles on GrabFood or foodpanda.

Each 1,000 GrabRewards factors may be redeemed for 100 KrisFlyer miles, whereas each S$1 spent on foodpanda can earn you 1 KrisFlyer mile (with a minimal spend of S$20).

Will AirAsia Meals Succeed In S’pore?

Picture Credit score: AirAsia

AirAsia may be very a lot conscious of the stiff competitors it’s going to face from the present dominant meals supply gamers.

Whereas CEO Tony Fernandes don’t assume that they would be the largest meals supply service in Singapore, he’s assured that they are going to be a “helpful section for small eating places”.

That stated, it’s going to certainly not be straightforward for them to earn a lion’s share of the meals supply pie right here. Even in its house nation Malaysia, it’s thought-about a smaller participant.

In accordance with Li Jianggan of Singapore-based enterprise builder Momentum Works, AirAsia meals delivered solely 150,000 orders for the primary quarter in Malaysia — this can be a fraction of the general market there, which is dominated by Seize and foodpanda.

The benefit that they’ve nonetheless, is that it’s a well-known firm so it doesn’t must market themselves as a lot as fledgling startups and customers have already got belief of their model.

As well as, it’s unlikely for AirAsia meals to be financially viable anytime quickly — even GrabFood, which has been round since 2018, is just not but worthwhile.

Earlier this 12 months, Seize president Ming Maa stated that he expects Seize to interrupt even in meals supply solely by the top of this 12 months.

Moreover, any income that they make will simply be a drop within the ocean for the loss-maklng finances airline.

Regardless, it looks like AirAsia is exploring different income streams. Past meals supply, AirAsia is increasing into the contemporary produce supply market in Singapore.

Which means customers can quickly have fish from Japan or brief ribs from Korea imported and delivered to their doorsteps inside 48 hours.

In any case, competitors breeds innovation and solely time will inform if AirAsia meals has what it takes to shake up the saturated meals supply market right here.

Featured Picture Credit score: AirAsia meals / GrabFood / foodpanda / Retail Information Asia