Airpaz’s journey from local flight booking platform to global online travel agency

When Indonesian flight booking platform Airpaz was
officially launched in 2014, its aim was simple: let people enjoy their trips, right from
the start. Back then, Indonesia’s Millennial consumer base, amounting to almost
70 million people, preferred life experiences like travel over material
possessions. Today, they are joined by some 75 million Gen Z consumers, who also share these same
preferences.  

Domestic tourism was on the rise, and it was an
opportunistic time for Airpaz to enter Indonesia’s air travel market. Globally,
tourism was rapidly expanding as well. In 2014, the number of international
tourists topped 1.1 billion, 51 million more than the year prior,
marking five years of robust year-on-year growth. But would these buying habits
transcend into flight bookings?  

Airpaz’s founders bet big that they would.  

Surging passenger numbers

The years prior to Airpaz’s arrival saw robust growth in the
number of Indonesian air travelers. In 2009, over 27 million passengers flew domestically. By 2014, just five
years later and the date of the platform’s launch, this number had surged by
almost 220% to over 85 million. By 2019, it grew further to 91 million. 

Multiple developments fueled this rise. Notably, Indonesia’s
rising consumer class stood at over 39 million in 2014, growing to over 57 million by 2019. In addition, enthusiasm for
air travel saw the emergence of multiple low-cost carriers (LCCs), especially those flying
to domestic destinations — prior to their arrival, air travel was considered
too expensive for many Indonesians. A further driver was Indonesia’s growing
number of internet users, a large proportion of whom were seeking to purchase
experiences like air travel online. At the time of Airpaz’s launch, there were 44 million such customers; in 2019, there were over 187 million. 

This period also saw a significant rise in international
travel, where over 45 million passengers headed for overseas destinations
across Southeast Asia and beyond. The number of foreign tourists flying into
Indonesia grew rapidly as well, from almost 9.5 in 2014 to over 16 million five years later. 

Growth challenges

As the flight booking platform grew in popularity across the
region, the preferences of its users further widened. With income levels
varying greatly across the region, demand for flights across a wide variety of
airlines and price ranges became the norm. However, Airpaz wasn’t alone in its
growth aspirations. New flight booking platforms targeting both Indonesian and
Southeast Asian travelers were rapidly emerging, taking significant market
share from airlines as well as physical bricks and mortar travel agencies.

The company would need to overcome multiple barriers to
entry to turn its ambition into success. Chief among these was intense price
competition. Many of Airpaz’s rivals were offering the same or similar fares. Profit margins on flights were already wafer-thin, which
meant that flight prices across the board were near or at the lowest they could
be to attract customers.

There was also the issue of differentiation. Most platforms
targeting Indonesians were unable to offer differentiated content. This was
also the case for the several hundred online travel agencies (OTAs) targeting
travelers across the region. The majority of these were unable to
facilitate a wide variety of flight options across both LCCs and full-service
carriers (FCCs) and were unable to offer the best flight prices.

Creating a platform that would offer varied flight contents,
competitive rates, and meet the diverse needs of local travelers would prove
challenging. In addition, the company was eager to grow beyond offering just
flights and into accommodation. It also aspired to service customers in new
markets by expanding into the global travel space. The vision was to become a
fully-fledged OTA offering a multitude of travel services to suit the unique
needs of travelers worldwide.

Achieving all the above would be extraordinary; some deemed
it unrealistic. Yet this didn’t deter the company from striving to achieve its
goals—nor did the onset of COVID-19 and the ensuing lockdowns, which would
greatly suppress travel, discourage Airpaz from realizing its ambitions. 

Global expansion

With support from multiple partners Airpaz overcame the
odds, developing cutting-edge solutions to meet each of the above needs. 

Most significantly, the OTA today provides extensive content
coverage and access to the best pricing on the market — delivered through
global flight and accommodation aggregator PKFare. Through this partnership,
which began in March 2023, PKFare supplies Airpaz with tickets covering nearly
1,500 origin and destination countries, sourcing from nearly 130 suppliers and
over 200 airlines. Notably, PKFare helped facilitate Airpaz’s expansion into
new travel markets, including the US, Japan and India, among many others
worldwide. 

Airpaz offers various fare types catering to diverse content
needs, including new distribution capability (NDC) fares, direct fares via
airline APIs, web fares, and exclusive inventories at special rates. Access to
such a wide range of fares contributes to Airpaz’s price competitiveness. For
some carriers, a significant price gaps exist between global distribution
system (GDS) and NDC fares, where the former can be twice as high as the
latter. Being able to access NDC fares gives Airpaz a noteworthy price advantage,
which in turn can lead to higher sales volumes. 

And lastly, technology. The PKFare tie-up enables Airpaz to
leverage artificial intelligence and refined operational services to deliver
seamless customer experiences: this ensures that only relevant content is
served to customers. Notably, PKFare’s API response time is the fastest among
Airpaz suppliers.  

Strong sales performance

Since Airpaz’s launch, over 16 million customers have booked
their flights with the OTA. More than three million people have installed the
Airpaz app on their smartphone via Google Play and Apple’s App Store.  

Critically, revenues have risen robustly. Between March 2023
and November 2024, sales of content supplied by PKFare grew by an average
monthly rate of 53%—a 12-fold increase in just 20 months. In addition, PKFare
has enabled Airpaz to expand into numerous high-growth overseas markets at
scale. Of note, the value of PKFare’s US domestic content provided to Airpaz
doubled between Q1 and Q2 2024. 

Most importantly, with the help of PKFare, Airpaz was able
to overcome significant growth barriers, notably varied flight contents,
competitive rates, and the ability to meet the diverse needs of travelers.
Today, Airpaz is a full-service, global OTA, offering customers unique travel
experiences that encompass many different parts of the world.  

Airpaz’s leadership is delighted with PKFare’s performance.
“We’ve greatly benefitted from PKFare’s extensive content coverage and
competitive pricing,” said Wesley Wijaya, chief partnership officer at Airpaz.
“I rate PKFare five out of five for its technological capabilities, as there
has never been an issue or error with its service.”