AirAsia organises maiden hackathon, opens to participants from 26 countries

• Airvolution 2017 will take place at RedQ in Sepang on March 18-19, 2017
• Open to participants from 26 markets covered by AirAsia's network

AirAsia Bhd, the region's largest budget carrier, will be hosting its first ever open innovation hackathon.

The hackathon, dubbed Airvolution 2017 and with the theme "Spearheading Innovation in Asean", will see 20 teams competing to create new applications and tools to address a travel-related challenge to be revealed later.

"Innovation is the lifeblood of AirAsia. We live and die by ideas, and this hackathon will provide the perfect environment for the best and brightest to explore new ideas," said AirAsia group chief executive officer Tony Fernandes, who was also the keynote speaker during Digital News Asia's inaugural What's Next conference in 2015. 

"This year marks the emergence of AirAsia as a digital airline, and I believe this event can spur the kind of radical, creative thinking that will ensure AirAsia remains on the leading edge."

While this is the first time AirAsia organises a hackathon, it is not the first time Fernandes is involved in startup/ entrepreneurship-related activities. About two years ago, Fernandes and business partners Kamarudin Meranun and Lim Kian Onn launched Tune Labs -- a South East Asian-based startup incubator and accelerator. 

The Airvolution 2017 will be hosted at the company's newly-opned RedQ headquarters in Sepang on March 18-19, 2017. 

The event is also sponsored by Microsoft, AirAsia Santan, AirAsia BIG Loyalty Programme, among others. It is also open to participants of any nationality currently residing in any of the 26 markets covered by AirAsia's extensive network.

These 26 countries include Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Iran, Oman, Mauritius, Australia and New Zealand. 

Registration for the event starts from now until 19 February 2017.

Successful teams will be informed by 3 March 2017, and we will even sponsor return flights for teams residing outside of Malaysia.

Solutions submitted during the hackathon will be reviewed by our panel of technology and aviation experts, who will select the best one based on originality, scalability and execution.

Winners will receive a cash prize, AirAsia BIG Points and free return flights to the AirAsia destination of their choice.

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