AirAsia named world's best low-cost airline for 9th consecutive time

AirAsia has been named the World's Best Low-Cost Airline for the ninth time in a row at the 2017 Skytrax World Airline Awards.

The awards, known as the "Oscars of the aviation industry", was presented to Asia's largest low-cost carrier at a ceremony held at Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace, Le Bourget Airport in Paris on Tuesday.

AirAsia Group cabin crew head Suhaila Hassan, who has been with the company for 20 years, accepted the award, flanked by AirAsia ambassador David Foster and Brazilian football player Roberto Carlos at the ceremony that saw 71 awards being given away.

The airline was also named Asia's Best Low-Cost Airline in Asia.

"We are now nine times world champion. To put it into perspective, Brazil won the FIFA World Cup five times, Michael Jordan was NBA champion six times and Michael Phelps holds the record for most first place finishes at a single Olympics with eight gold medals," said AirAsia Group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes.

"We take the world champion title seriously and we will strive to continue to improve for both our guests and shareholders," he added.

He said over the last 15 years, the group has created a great brand and wants to move towards One AirAsia, a truly Asean community airline.

"We also want to recreate ourselves as a digital airline and use technology to drive more value," said Fernandes.

Meanwhile, AirAsia X, AirAsia's long-haul sister airline, bagged the World's Best Low-Cost Airline Premium Cabin and World's Best Low-Cost Airline Premium Seat awards for the fifth straight year.

The Skytrax Awards are the global benchmark of airline excellence with over 19.9 million customer surveys completed worldwide by more than 105 nationalities, measuring standards across 49 key performance indicators of an airline's frontline products and services.

AirAsia and AirAsia X have won a combined 25 Skytrax World Airline Awards since the awards were introduced in 2001.

AirAsia is Asia's largest low-cost carrier by the number of passengers carried, with an extensive network covering more than 120 destinations in 26 countries across Asia, Australia and New Zealand, the Middle East and the United States.

Mixed Relay Triathlon added to Tokyo 2020 Programme

Triathlon Mixed Relays have been officially included on the programme for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

In August 2020, the Odaiba Marine Park in Tokyo will host the third triathlon event during the next Olympics, giving triathletes the possibility to earn another Olympic medal. The Mixed Relays will represent a catalyst on the promotion of women athletes within all NOCs around the world, as it completely fulfils the Agenda 2020 requirements.

Marisol Casado, President of ITU and IOC Member, said: “We are absolutely delighted with this decision. We’ve been pushing for the Mixed Relays to be included in the Programme for quite a long time, as it is an event that gives the sport something very important: a sense of team building. But most important, is an event that demonstrates that women and men can compete together but both are equally important to the success of the team

IOC President, Mr Thomas Bach, said: The fascinating new vents that we approved today, together with the five new sports that were added to the Tokyo 2020 programme last year, represent a step-change in the Olympic programme. I am delighted that the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020 will be more youthful, more urban and will include more women”.

The Mixed Relays is one of the most thrilling events in triathlon, with teams of two men and two women completing each a short-course triathlon (300m swim, 8km bike, 2km run) before tagging off to their teammate to take over. With its rapid and unpredictable format, athletes love it and spectators enjoy it both onsite and on television, making it one of the most spectacular formats of the circuit.

With no extra athletes needed to be added to the Olympic Programme, and lots of extra excitement ensured, the Mixed Relays are also backed by triathlon fans and event organizers around the world. “It will be amazing if we could have two opportunities to get a medal at the Olympic Games,” said American Gwen Jorgensen. An Olympic winner herself in Rio 2016, she was one of the first triathletes backing ITU’s proposal of including the Mixed Relays on the Olympic Programme for Tokyo 2020. Hundreds of triathletes around the world, National Federations and Organizers of events have also joined the campaign.

“It was great to have the current Olympic champion Alistair Brownlee; Olympic silver medalist Jonathan Brownlee; ITU World Champion Non Stanford and current ITU World Champion Flora Duffy announcing this exciting news, as part of the athletes commitment with the gender equality policies we always support and encourage at ITU. We are proud that this message was given by our athletes to all the triathlon fans around the world, and also to the Olympic family”, said Casado.

SWANSEA UNIVERSITY HIRES PHAR AS BRAND PARTNERSHIPS ADVISER

Swansea University has appointed PHAR to review its programme of strategic partnerships with business and develop a marketing framework to maximise the programme’s success going forwards.

Winner of the Times and Sunday Times Welsh University of the Year, and placed in the Top 350 of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, Swansea University has recently opened its new £450m Bay Campus to house its College of Engineering and School of Management.

The University’s has long standing strategic relationships with organisations such as Santander Universities, Tata and Rolls Royce.  PHAR has been appointed to conduct an assessment of the current business partnerships and create a framework for how the strategic value delivered to the University through relationship marketing can be maximised going forwards.

“PHAR clearly has great experience in generating added value from brand partnerships for organisations”, commented Alison Parker, Swansea University’s Head of Business Marketing.  “It will be really interesting to understand how this knowledge and expertise can be applied to the University sector as our partnerships with industry play a crucial role in delivering the knowledge economy through research collaborations, skills development and student recruitment. 

“Swansea is in many ways one of the UK’s most exciting universities right now,” added Alastair Macdonald, Managing Director of PHAR UK.  “With genuine leadership in areas such as engineering, and ranked in the Top 15 for student satisfaction, partnership with Swansea University has the potential to deliver real marketing and corporate value.  This is a really exciting project for us, and we’re looking forward to delivering a framework that enables the University to realise its potential from strategic partnerships with business.”   

VITA COCO APPOINTS PHAR TO MEDIA PLANNING AND BUYING TASK

Following a competitive pitch, PHAR has won the task to plan and buy Vita Coco’s media activity, with immediate effect. 

The Vita Coco brand is a global leader in coconut-based foods and beverages. Vita Coco Coconut Water is the best-selling brand in the UK, 45%* bigger than its nearest UK rival and is sold in 31 countries around the world.

Vita Coco Coconut Water will launch their largest media campaign to date with a multi-million pound investment. The extensive 360 degree campaign will feature a variety of media including a national buy across TV, OOH and digital, as well as large-scale experiential and PR activity.

“As we continue to drive brand awareness across the UK, having the strongest media strategy is fundamental to our growth ambitions at Vita Coco,” commented Pip Brook, Marketing Director, EMEA at Vita Coco.  “The strategy that PHAR presented back to us demonstrated their in-depth analysis of our challenge to ensure that we create a campaign that allows us to achieve the cut through we need at our stage of the brand. They showed the creative thinking, as well as the passion and energy, that we are looking for, and we’re delighted to be working with the team at Phar.”

“We’re really excited to be working with one of the most impressive brands to launch in the UK in the past ten years,” added Marcus Wight, PHAR’s Chief Executive.  “We believe that we have created a media plan for this summer that will enable Vita Coco to achieve the next step in its growth, and it’s great to see our ideas and approach are on the same wavelength as theirs!”

Charterprime Launches AirAsia Partnership

In the deal brokered by PHAR Partnerships Malaysia, Charterprime today (18 May 2017) officially launched their custom livery with AirAsia at the Sepang Aircraft Engineering Hangar.

Charterprime is an international financial group specializing in the brokerage of financial product and foreign exchange. Tune Group Sdn Bhd recently went into partnership with Charterprime in an official brokering capacity for all financial spots  and future products, namely foreign exchange (FX). This partnership is for an initial 18 month period.

Attending the launch was Mathew Tate and Simon Stephen, Managing Partners of Charterprime, and Tony Fernandes, Group CEO of AirAsia.