Benyamin Ismail is the CEO of AirAsia X, a Malaysian low-cost airline which entered the Nepali market in June 2012. It posted a strong passenger growth of 55.4 percent last year to climb to the sixth spot. Ismail was in Nepal on a brief visit, and The Kathmandu Post’s Sangam Prasain talked to him about the carrier’s immediate plans and its future strategy for the country’s market. Excerpts.

How do you assess the Nepal market?

We have been operating on the Nepal route for many years. The growth has been phenomenal and we want to maintain this pace. There have been quite a lot of migrant workers coming to Malaysia. Our occupancy consists of 80 percent migrant workers and 20 percent tourists. As the tourist portion we bring to Nepal is small, we are working on a strategy to increase the tourist occupancy to 30 percent or more in the next few years. We can increase tourist numbers not only from Malaysia but also from the other countries we fly to. We fly to Australia, China, Japan and the Asean market, so we want to increase the number of visitors to Nepal from there.

What will be your strategy?

First of all, it is marketing. We have to work together with the tourism associations here. We want to assure our passengers that our flight connects at the right time. We want to assure passengers that they won’t have to wait for long hours for their connecting flight. We want to make our flights more attractive. The meeting here was quite fruitful. My team will see how we can increase tourist occupancy.

Do you plan to increase the frequency of your Nepal service?

Yes, we have always been quite aggressive. We had operated twice daily flights in the past. We want to maintain that frequency and do more. At the moment with the situation of the natural disaster, demand has come down a little. So we are already thinking about what needs to be done during the next four months. What we see in the context of the natural disaster is that it lasts for a short term, and I see that Nepal will recover soon. As we have seen in many countries like Thailand and Indonesia, they have recovered in a short time. You see a decline for the next three-four months, and by the end of the day, people will start to come again. It’s all about marketing. It’s a perception. As long as you offer low fares, people will fly to Nepal. We are quite confident that we can be back in full swing with three flights a day soon in Nepal.

What are the perceptions of visitors towards Nepal?

When the disaster struck Nepal, there were a lot of tourists here. What we saw was that most of the visitors were not cancelling their trips. People were just deferring their Nepal trips. Visitors still want to come to Nepal. Whether for sightseeing or outdoor activities like mountain climbing and trekking, they prefer visiting Nepal. The Buddhist population coming to this side of the world is quite big, and it is likely to grow significantly. After the disaster, we initially thought that there would be a lot of cancellations from visitors. But interestingly, we did not see as many cancellations as expected. We also offered options for them to change their travel dates.

Where do you want to position yourself in Nepal?

We want to be Number 1. Of course, there are other big players like Jet Airways and Qatar Airways that fly to Nepal many times a day. The Middle Eastern market is quite big. For us, we want to bring visitors from out of Asia. We are already ahead of major airlines here. So we are also thinking about a number of strategies to position ourselves as the Number 1 airline. I think we have a lot of market, and they are very important for us to reach the goal.

Are you satisfied with your growth?

Air Asia’s growth here has always been good. We offer good airfares, and that is our strength. Like I said before, we saw some decline after the natural disaster. Nepal has a new constitution now. And as the Nepal government has accorded priority to the development of the tourism industry, we will also benefit from this encouraging development. Nepal has lots of opportunities to grow. There are lots of places and destinations here to cater to tourists. Nepal is a natural market for visitors.