SEPANG, 17 NOVEMBER 2016
AirAsia Berhad's Head of Investor Relations Elina Effendi (right) receiving the Gold Award under the ‘Grand Award - Best of Asia Pacific’ at The Plaza Hotel in New York
- Gold for Grand Award: Best in Asia Pacific
- Gold for Best Non-Traditional Annual Report: Airlines
AirAsia Berhad’s 2015 annual report themed ‘Discover More with
AirAsia’ won the prestigious Gold Award under the ‘Grand Award - Best of Asia Pacific’ category at the 30th
International ARC Awards. The winners were fêted at the Pearl Anniversary Gala, held at The Plaza Hotel
in New York City in October. The Company also received the Gold Award for ‘Best Non-Traditional Annual
Report: Airlines’ category.
The ARC Awards honours excellence in annual reports and is considered the most respected and prestigious
competition in the industry. Winning an ARC prize is highly coveted due to the impartiality of the judging
organisations, which boasts global representation. On top of that, Grand Awards are given only to the top
2% of all the Gold winning annual reports. This year’s awards saw a total of 2,124 competing entries from
32 countries.
Established by MerComm. Inc. in 1987, the Annual Report Competition (ARC) Awards aims to encourage
noteworthy and vital writing, as well as imaginative and original design. Preliminary and final judges
represent top level investor relations executives, financial executives, writers, designers, and photographers
from over 50 different agencies and corporations in Austria, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea,
Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United States. Criteria used to
choose winners included Cover Design, Chairman’s Letter, Writing, Interior Design, Financial Presentation,
and overall, how well the spirit of the company is reflected in the annual report.
Elina Effendi, Head of Investor Relations of AirAsia Berhad said, “Firstly, it is important for me to
highlight that this award is a recognition of the efforts by a team of passionate people who have worked
tirelessly to put this publication together, with the help of Allstars from across the AirAsia Group. As the
World’s Best Low-Cost Airline we strive to always be at the forefront in innovation. We are proud to be
honoured with this prestigious award recognising the creative input to our 2015 annual report. Our annual
reports have become collectable items and we have been receiving requests for copies from corporates
and individuals not just in Malaysia but all over the world. With such high expectations given, every year
we challenge ourselves to improve the quality of our annual report as it is a representation of the AirAsia
Allstars and the work they have done during the year.”
Elaborating on the theme of the annual report, she said, "Our annual reports are all about our people. We
feature different Allstars every year based on the theme of the annual report for the year. For this
publication in particular, the theme was 'Discover More with AirAsia.' Apart from discovering new and
interesting destinations with AirAsia, in the annual report we have sections such as 'Discovering Your
Purpose' where we highlighted the #AirAsiaMAKNA campaign and the story of our people who were
personally affected by cancer. Another section was on 'Discovering Your Ambitions' where we talked about
empowering our people to achieve their dreams and featured our staff such as Kugan Tangiisuran from
Malaysia who was a dispatch boy but is now a pilot, a Thai AirAsia Allstar, Pinkaew Sujanakobkul who was
a ramp agent but is now an ICT Supervisor and Tantu Agung Suharto, the Head of Corporate Quality and
Assurance in Indonesia AirAsia who started his career with the company as a guest service assistant."
In conjunction with the prize-giving ceremony at The ARC Awards Pearl Anniversary Gala in New York City,
the winning annual reports received world-wide attention and recognition with international exhibitions in
Europe and Asia. These exhibitions allowed the general public to read, touch and feel the financial
documents and showcase the technical and creative aspects of print and paper-making. They also provide
an up-to-date view on international horizons beyond national borders. The winning annual reports were
displayed at the following cities. Each were open to the public for about a week:
Vienna - 1 September 2016
Hamburg - 15 September 2016
Hong Kong - 18 November 2016
AirAsia’s award-winning annual reports can be viewed and downloaded at
http://www.airasia.com/jp/en/about-us/ir-annual-reports.page
Nova Fusion Sdn Bhd is the Malaysian based creative agency commissioned by AirAsia Berhad for the
creative execution and the publication of the 2015 annual report.
To find out more and to keep updated with the latest AirAsia news, activities and promotions, follow AirAsia
on Twitter (twitter.com/AirAsia) and Facebook (facebook.com/AirAsia).