Concur, an SAP company and one of the world’s leading provider of integrated travel and expense management solutions, has announced a collaboration with AirAsia Group that will help Concur Travel customers access regular and exclusive corporate content from AirAsia. The latter content is available only to customers who have a direct agreement with AirAsia. This is expected to help businesses reduce their corporate travel spend amidst the present challenging economic environment, where many businesses are closely monitoring and looking at better managing their travel costs.
With Asia being the largest market and epicenter for business travel in world, according to a McKinsey report commissioned by Singapore Tourism Board, low cost carriers (LCCs) have also gained popularity and market share of business travel in the region. In Asia, LCCs comprised 29 percent of all business travel expenditure on flights, making this the most penetrated region in the world. As a benchmark, penetration in North America is only at 16 percent. Growth has been the fastest in Asia as well–business travel expenditure on LCCs has grown 11 percent annually over the past three years, nearly double the rate of growth in North America (6 percent).
Nick Evered, Concur’s senior vice president and general manager, Asia Pacific, said, “Our collaboration with AirAsia Group, by far the largest LCC grouping in Asia, will provide our customers with a great cost saving window on their travel budgets. Concur’s easy-to-use business travel and expense management software solution helps businesses save time, money and gain control. This is a timely collaboration as both Concur and AirAsia identify the needs of the digital customer today, and we’re excited to be able to extend more savings for our customers through this collaboration with AirAsia.”
Barry Klipp, group head of corporate sales, AirAsia said, “We are delighted to collaborate with Concur, who will play a key role in our corporate sales strategy. Through Concur Travel, we will offer both our regular content, as well as, our exclusive corporate content to those who have a direct corporate agreement with AirAsia. As companies continue to manage their travel budgets in the challenging economic times, we look forward to supporting Concur’s customers in budgeting their employee travel costs.”
AirAsia Group’s wide network, covering 120 destinations across 26 countries and 9 airlines, enables businesses to reach their customers anywhere and hence, opens up new markets and opportunities.
