Transforming Travel: AirAsia MOVE Partners with Antom for Seamless Payment Solutions

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 7, 2025--

AirAsia MOVE (MOVE), Asean’s leading travel booking app and the OTA (online travel agency) platform business of Capital A has signed a partnership agreement with Ant International’s Antom as part of its continuous efforts to transform travel, including seamless payment experiences on the app. Under the agreement, AirAsia MOVE will work closely with Antom, Ant International’s merchant payment and digitisation services provider, and 2C2P, a full-suite global payments platform and a subsidiary of Antom.

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This collaboration is set to integrate Antom and 2C2P’s advanced payment solutions, including payment orchestration and acquiring for both cards and local payment methods (LPMs), into AirAsia MOVE’s platform. These cutting-edge technologies will empower AirAsia MOVE to streamline payment methods, reduce cross-border transaction costs and operational expenses, and broaden its consumer base, while providing customers with a wider range of preferred payment options.

Nadia Omer, CEO of AirAsia MOVE and Agnes Chua, Managing Director, Business and Product Development of 2C2P, commemorated the partnership with a signing ceremony today, with Leiming Chen, Chief Sustainability Officer of Ant International in attendance alongside Lim Ben Jie , Chief People Officer and Partnerships of AirAsia MOVE, Anderson Yong, Head of Enterprise Payments AirAsia MOVE, Aaron Wang, Vice President of Strategic Partnership, Ant International and Reggie Weston, Executive Director of Business and Product Development of 2C2P.

Tony Fernandes, CEO of Capital A, lauded the partnership as a significant step forward for the broader Capital A ecosystem. He added: “This collaboration with Antom and 2C2P not only benefits AirAsia MOVE but also strengthens our ecosystem by enhancing payment capabilities across our businesses. We look forward to a long-term partnership with Ant International as we continue to innovate and deliver exceptional value to our customers.”

Nadia Omer, CEO of AirAsia MOVE said: “We are thrilled to join forces with Antom to redefine the way our customers experience travel payments. By integrating Antom and 2C2P’s advanced solutions, we’re enhancing efficiency, improving customer satisfaction, and delivering significant cost savings. This partnership underscores our commitment to innovation and delivering value to our customers across the region.

We aim to simplify the complexities of cross-border transactions through this partnership and it also aligns with AirAsia MOVE’s vision of providing seamless travel experiences. By leveraging Antom and 2C2P’s robust payment infrastructure, we can offer greater flexibility and convenience, addressing the diverse needs of our growing customer base in Southeast Asia and beyond.”

Gary Liu, General Manager of Antom, Ant International commented: “We are proud to deepen our partnership with AirAsia MOVE in our joint journey to continuously drive innovation and elevate the payment experience for customers. Our advanced solutions, including payment orchestration and acquiring for both cards and LPMs, enable AirAsia MOVE to expand its reach to more consumers across the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. By combining our expertise and AI-driven payment technologies, we are committed to improving operational efficiency, enhancing customer satisfaction, and unlocking long-term value together.”

Reggie Weston,Executive Director of Business and Product Development of 2C2P said: “We are excited to deepen our longstanding partnership with AirAsia MOVE together with Antom, and bring the latest advanced payment features to empower AirAsia MOVE to meet the needs of their customers everywhere in an optimal and seamless way.”

This partnership agreement between MOVE, Antom and 2C2P is part of a strategic partnership announced last March between Capital A and Ant International which covers various areas, exploring to integrate more payment methods and providing acquiring services to Capital A’s platforms, work on digital marketing and sponsorship opportunities to drive business growth, and to cooperate in enhancing access to sustainable finance while transitioning to a low carbon economy for the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprise (MSME) community.

Antom manages an acquiring network spanning over 40 countries and regions, enabling the integration of hundreds of payment methods and supporting transactions in more than 100 currencies. Its unified API provides businesses with seamless access to global payment options, including credit cards, e-wallets, and local payment solutions. Leveraging AI technology, Antom helps businesses ensure transaction security, streamlines foreign exchange risk management, lowers costs, and enhances operational efficiency through real-time payments and blockchain solutions. Additionally, Antom empowers merchants to customise operations and refine customer targeting with AI-driven and privacy-computing tools.

Operating across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, 2C2P’s extensive network provides a single point of integration to over 400 regional and local payment methods and 600,000 alternative payment locations, enabling businesses to reach their customers anywhere across online, mobile or offline channels. Its payment orchestration product, Payment Air Controller (PACO), is designed to resolve common pain points experienced by airlines such as managing transaction and currency conversion fees across different acquirers, offices and markets, synchronizing online and offline booking channels, managing fraud risk, optimizing costs as well as catering to diverse customer payment preferences.

About AirAsia MOVE
AirAsia MOVE, formerly known as airasia Superapp is the newest online travel agent+ (OTA+) in town, providing a seamless and personalised experience for travellers at the best value in Asean and beyond. It envisions a comprehensive travel ecosystem, providing various travel offerings, such as flights and hotel bookings from over 700 airlines, including AirAsia, and over 900,000 hotels world-wide, plus ride-hailing, insurance, duty-free shopping and much more. The services are complemented by a community-led experience through features such as airasia chat, games, gifting, and a strong loyalty program that rewards users across its expansive ecosystem. It has been voted by World Travel Awards as ‘Asia’s Leading Online Travel Agency’ for two consecutive years since its first nomination in 2023.

About Ant International
Headquartered in Singapore, Ant International powers the future of global commerce with digital innovation for everyone and every business to thrive. In close collaboration with partners, we support merchants of all sizes worldwide to realize their growth aspirations through a comprehensive range of tech-driven digital payment and financial services solutions.

About Antom
Ant International’s Antom is the leading payment and digitisation services provider for merchants around the world. It offers one-stop, vertical-specific digital payment solutions to meet the payment needs of merchants of all sizes. Antom has established local acquiring capabilities in over 40 markets, with the flexibility to accept payments in more than 100 currencies. It also provides digital marketing solutions and merchant digitization services to help merchant in digital operations and to better engage with their customers. To learn more, please visit https://www.antom.com/.

About 2C2P
2C2P is a full-suite payments platform that empowers the world's leading enterprises to securely accept and make payments through one point of integration. Its extensive network spans across online, mobile and offline channels including over 600,000 alternative payment locations, enabling enterprises to reach their customers or recipients anywhere. 2C2P also provides value-added services such as issuing, 3D Secure, bill payments and digital goods to meet every business need.

Headquartered in Singapore with operations across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, 2C2P is the preferred payments partner for airlines, online marketplaces, retailers and other enterprises.

From left to right: Nadia Omer, CEO of AirAsia MOVE, Anderson Yong, Head of Enterprise Payments AirAsia MOVE, Agnes Chua, Managing Director, Business and Product Development of 2C2P and Leiming Chen, Chief Sustainability Officer of Ant International (Photo: Business Wire)

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is holding a bit steadier Wednesday, and U.S. stocks are drifting lower a day after strong reports on the economy stirred up worries that inflation and interest rates may remain higher than expected.

The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged following its 1.1% slump the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 19 points, or 0.1%, as of 11 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% lower.

In the bond market, which has been the bigger focus for Wall Street recently, the moves were also more modest following the last month's charge higher for yields. Higher yields hurt stocks by making it more expensive for companies and households to borrow and by pulling some investors toward bonds and away from stocks.

The increased calm returned to the market after reports on the economy Wednesday weren’t as strong as Tuesday’s. That can counterintuitively help Wall Street because it raises hopes that the Federal Reserve may keep cutting short-term interest rates. Wall Street loves lower rates, which can goose the economy and boost prices for investments.

Fed Governor Christopher Waller said in a speech Wednesday he still expects the central bank to deliver more easing of rates in 2025, pushing back against nascent speculation it may already be done after cutting three times since September.

Waller said he doesn’t expect tariffs that are possibly coming under President-elect Donald Trump to have a “significant or persistent effect” on inflation. And even though inflation has shown stubbornness recently, he still sees it trending downward over the long term.

“If the outlook evolves as I have described here, I will support continuing to cut our policy rate in 2025,” he said in Paris. “The pace of those cuts will depend on how much progress we make on inflation, while keeping the labor market from weakening.”

The yield on the two-year Treasury, which tends to closely track expectations for Fed action, fell immediately after Waller’s speech and the release of a couple economic reports. It eased to 4.27% from 4.29% late Tuesday.

One of the reports suggested U.S. employers outside of the government slowed their hiring in December by more than economists expected. That could offer a hint of what Friday’s more comprehensive jobs report from the Labor Department will show.

That update will likely be the main event for Wall Street this week, particularly after the stock market’s closure on Thursday in observance of a National Day of Mourning for former President Jimmy Carter. The hope is that it will show enough strength to keep any worries of a recession stifled but not so strong that it prevents the Fed from cutting rates.

A separate report on Wednesday, meanwhile, said fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week than economists expected. It’s the latest signal that the job market remains remarkably solid.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which is the centerpiece of the bond market, also eased slightly, down to 4.68% from 4.69% late Tuesday. But it topped 4.70% earlier in the morning and is well above the 4.15% level it was at roughly a month ago. It was below 3.65% in September.

Such increases in rates make it more expensive for companies to borrow, and smaller companies can feel particular pain because of the need for many to borrow to grow. The Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks fell 1.1%, more than other indexes.

In the stock market, Cal-Maine Foods climbed 4.1% after the egg producer reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Sherman Miller said it sold more dozens of eggs thanks in part to strong demand from the seasonal boost it gets leading into Thanksgiving.

Egg prices climbed late last year as a lingering outbreak of bird flu coincided with the high demand of the holiday baking season.

Delta Air Lines will report its first-quarter results on Friday, with big banks beginning next week to kick off the latest earnings reporting season in earnest.

In stock markets abroad, indexes weakened were mixed across Europe and Asia. South Korea’s Kospi climbed 1.2%, but Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.9%.

AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York's Financial District Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei 225 index at a securities firm Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person looks at an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

People stand in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

People stand in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)