AirAsia Partners With Google To Reskill Staff, Launches Tech Academy

Kuala Lumpur-based budget carrier AirAsia Berhad AIABF has partnered with Alphabet Inc. GOOGL GOOG to launch a technology academy, CNBC reported on Wednesday.

What Happened

The "AirAsia Google Cloud Academy" will be managed by AirAsia's venture fund RedBeat Ventures and Google Cloud, according to CNBC.

The academy will be opened to all AirAsia employees in February, who want to gain technology skills to better suit AirAsia's "current and future business operations," AirAsia Group President Aireen Omar told The Nikkei Asian Review. It will be opened to the public by the year's end, Aireen said.

"More jobs might become redundant in the next three years, so we are giving our employees the [opportunity] to reskill to suit the digital economy," Aireen told The Nikkei.

Some of the courses that the academy will offer include digital marketing, digital product management, software engineering, and building and designing tech infrastructure, according to The Nikkei.

AirAsia had partnered with Google Cloud in October 2018 to incorporate artificial intelligence and machine learning into its business, the Malay Mail reported at the time.

Why It Matters

The budget carrier has been increasingly expanding into other businesses as profits from the airline decrease due to rising fuel costs and industry competition.

AirAsia launched its first restaurant in Kuala Lumpur December last year that serves the same food it does onboard the craft. The carrier said it planned to expand to 100 venues globally in the next five years.

The airline reported an 18% growth in revenue in the third quarter of 2019 at $761 million, with a 26% increase in revenue from supporting services.

Price Action

AirAsia's shares closed 0.72% higher at $0.4 in the otc market on Wednesday. The shares traded at $0.41 in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.

Photo Credit: Public domain photo via Wikimedia.