Have you ever craved duck eggs? char kuey teow made by a Penang street vendor so bad that you wish it could fly and be delivered to your doorstep in Klang Valley?
Regardless of your answer, this can now be a reality, as airasia food just launched such a service.
Launched on August 15, the airline’s food delivery arm will now allow Klang Valley residents to receive freshly prepared food from select Penang merchants delivered to them and prepared on delivery date.
However, it is worth noting that your food can only be delivered on Wednesdays and with an order deadline of 5pm on Tuesdays.
No, you won’t have to pay airfare as delivery currently starts at RM5.99 per order.
Based on recent coverage, it seems that sentiment towards the service is generally upbeat. However, we couldn’t help but feel suspicious.
Interested in finding out how this service would work for ourselves, we ordered a pack of three duck eggs char kuey teow from Tiger Char Koay Teow, Penang.
Our delivery times are currently scheduled for Wednesday, August 17, from 5:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., and in the meantime, we think we’ll first expand on our current thinking. myself about it.
So here are some questions we have about the service.
1. How can food keep its freshness during delivery?
According to airasia news, all meals will be prepared fresh before they fly to KL.
A typical food delivery service takes up to an hour from the time the food is cooked fresh until it reaches the customer’s table. Getting it on a flight would require several more hours and more steps.
Once cooked, it must be packed safe enough to withstand the waves, sent to the airport, boarded a flight, flown about an hour from Penang to KL, packed and then spent an hour en route to to customers at the door step.
The whole process can take as little as four to five hours, and that doesn’t even take into account bad weather, traffic or flight delays.
Since the food will not be frozen, we wondered how the food could be kept fresh during this longer than usual delivery time. Is the noodle still tough? Will the sauce run out?
airasia has yet to fully reveal how they will achieve this feat, so it remains to be seen what our food will look like when it arrives.
2. How safe will be packed?
Depending on the merchant, food can sometimes be poorly packaged, whether due to the seller’s carelessness or to something beyond their control.
Add to that the fact that airasia will carry food on a flight, where turbulence is inevitable, and the air pressure in flight will cause the packages to expand, and one has to wonder: will the food Can our food really survive the journey?
This can be avoided by using special packaging, whether as an additional layer of airasia, or by the seller itself (who may have to protect the packaging from airasia itself).
3. What happens to unusable food on arrival?
In the event that packaging breaks and spills occur during any part of the journey, we wonder what safeguards airasia has put in place.
Has the seller been instructed to make backups that will also be sent in flight as a precaution? Does Airasia intend to refund customers?
Or is this why customers can only order a three-course (minimum) package like we did with our meal from Tiger Char Koay Teow?
4. Is food allowed on passenger flights?
airasia will make its first deliveries this Wednesday, August 17th, which is when our food will also arrive.
As we currently have promised delivery times between 5pm and 5:30pm, it would make sense for the AirAsia flight to arrive at 4pm if the flight arrives at our Bangsar South delivery location on time . It’s a 50-minute drive from KLIA2.
The closest we can find is a flight arriving at 2:45 tomorrow. This will give the food enough time to get to our doorsteps in a timely manner, assuming they go through the usual check-in process on flights.
Of course, there is also the possibility that the food will be shipped with other freight trains with a completely different schedule.
5. Will there be a maximum order limit from customers?
It is unknown if airasia has a limit on the number of orders each merchant can accept, as the amount of cargo in each flight must be taken into account.
If there is an order limit per flight and the use of this service takes off, then that makes sense why airasia allows customers to schedule orders 30 days in advance.
6. What is the value to the merchant?
At launch, there are nine merchants available to order, including Hameed Pata, Bangkok Lane, Jeruk Madu Pak Ali, Nyonya Kuih from Li Er Cafe, Nasi Kandar from Hameediyah and White Curry Mee, among others.
The airline is also calling for more Penang merchants to join the offering, as it aims to give these businesses more visibility to Airasia Super App users across the region.
If the ball is in the merchant’s court to go the extra mile in packing their treats so the goods are safe, we wonder if airasia would encourage them because of the additional costs and labor related or not.
7. Is there really a real need for this (aside from novelty), and what has airasia done to confirm the market?
(Or, are we market validators…? Hm.)
With airasia delivering Penang food to Klang Valley, this suggests that KL residents will be able to satisfy their cravings without having to travel on their own, saving on airfare and associated travel costs.
However, cravings aren’t exactly a planned affair, and most people want to scratch the itch right away. While ordering a few days in advance still makes sense, booking a month in advance doesn’t.
Also, cravings are often very personal, and with airasia forcing customers to buy their food in packages, you need to invite friends or family on board, or finish the food in a few meals.
It should also be noted that there are several Penang merchants on airasia’s listing that already have stores in the Klang Valley. For example, Nasi Kandar from Hameediyah has stores in Kota Damansara, Ampang and KL.
Jeruk Madu Pak Ali also has branches in Puchong, Shah Alam and Batu Caves.
We couldn’t find stores in Klang Valley for either of these restaurants available for airasia delivery, but they are listed on GrabFood, which is still a faster option than ordering from Penang.
In this case, why would a customer be willing to pre-order a meal from these stores and wait at least a day or more for it to be delivered?
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Airasia’s popularity in its early days came from challenging the status quo of who can fly, opening up the field of leisure travel for everyday people.
However, over the years we have observed that it is starting to slow down. When it comes to food delivery and email delivery, people can even say they’re late to the party.
Previously, Tony Fernandes said of their ride-hailing strategy, “I’ve been working with Grab for eight years to learn. I didn’t have to waste all that money, with testing, building technology, driver training and ordering market training, they did it all for me.”
Although, with airasia drone delivery (though no more news about it since) and now intercity food delivery, we have to say, there is something admired for the company’s courage in rolling out experimental services.
This intercity food delivery service is also smartly leveraging existing Airasia resources and infrastructure to enhance its casual food delivery service.
Regardless of the need for intercity food delivery, Airasia Super App has been known to launch new services quickly, gain customer feedback, and continuously refine their ideas.
From what we can see, this intercity food delivery service is still pretty rudimentary, if our driver “Testboy 1” with car “ABC123” has any signs.
However, we’re still pretty much waiting to see how our food will arrive and we’ll be sure to write about our experience, so stay tuned for updates!
- Read other articles we have written about airasia here.
Featured image credit: airasia’s editorial office
