Saravanan Ramasamy | Group Head, Distribution & Ancillary Commercial
AirAsia | Malaysia

Saravanan is the Group Head of Ancillary and Distribution of AirAsia where he is tasked of drive Ancillary business and optimise the distribution channels across the AirAsia Group.

Drawing his vast experience in the aviation industry, Saravanan joined AirAsia as the Head of Commercial Operations of AirAsia Indonesia and later AirAsia X where was tasked to oversee and consolidate the key areas of commercial, namely; Sales, Distribution, Revenue Management and Marketing. Under this role, Saravanan was pivotal in bringing all these departments strategies under a coherent and cohesive Commercial action plan to achieve the target revenue and profitability.  

Prior to joining AirAsia, Saravanan was attached to Malaysia Airlines where he spearheaded the partner selection strategy for the replacement of the airline reservation system. At MAS, Saravanan held various positions, namely; Project Lead at the Revenue Management Department, Head of Fare Filing and Distribution, Head the Special Prorate Agreements (SPA) and Interline Management, Head of Global Sales and Head of e-Business. 

Prior to joining MAS, he was a consultant with Accenture Ltd, primarily focusing on financial industry.  His 4 years’ stint with Accenture enabled him to gain a diverse range of experience at both national and international level, which among others include program managing the merger between a leading finance company and a leading commercial bank in Malaysia, implementing strategic planning and forecasting model for a leading bank in Mauritius and developing business case for a merger between two leading banks in Singapore.

Prior to Accenture, Saravanan began his career with Arthur Andersen & Co where he was a part the audit and business advisory performing statutory audits, due diligence and business operations reviews. 

Saravanan, an accountant by qualification, is currently a member of the Malaysian Institute of Accountant.  He has completed his Masters in Economics at the National University of Singapore under the coveted ASEAN Graduate Scholarship.  He is a regular columnist on economics with leading publications such as The Edge and Malaysian Institute of Accountant’s bi-monthly publication entitled Accountants Today.