AirAsia aims to have flying taxis by 2022

Malaysian budget airline AirAsia Group Bhd. said it is seeking to launch a flying-taxi business as soon as next year.

“We are working on that right now,” Tony Fernandes, the company’s chief executive officer and co-founder, said Saturday. “I think we are about a year and a half away from launching.”

Fernandes was speaking in an online discussion as part of the Youth Economic Forum.

With the airline business taking a hit from the coronavirus pandemic, AirAsia has been expanding in the digital space. It launched a “super app” last year that offers services from travel and shopping to logistics and financial services.