Capital A officially launched IKHLAS on October 20, developed to be airasia Super App’s Muslim-friendly travel and lifestyle platform.
The platform aims to offer Muslims an affordable and convenient way to perform their religious obligations and enjoy a shariah-compliant lifestyle.
Coming with an app, IKHLAS’ provides access to faith-based practices including Umrah, Zakat, Sadaqah, Aqiqah, Fidyah, and Qurban. Other than that, IKHLAS also offers travel packages with destinations across the whole AirAsia network.
Despite its recent launch, IKHLAS originally started in April 2020 amidst the pandemic.
“At AirAsia, we are all about connecting people to destinations at the best value, and I have always envisioned [replicating] the AirAsia success story into a shariah-compliant travel ecosystem,” said Datuk Kamarudin Meranan, Capital A’s executive chairman, in a press release.
“With IKHLAS, we are marrying both travel and religious obligation into one convenient and accessible platform for Muslim travellers, enabling them to travel with confidence.”
Travelling with confidence
The IKHLAS Travel packages have been designed to include Muslim-friendly itineraries with halal food options and access to prayer facilities. Destinations include Seoul, Busan, Bali, Phuket, Bangkok, and Krabi.
These destinations were selected based on market trends and internal data from AirAsia.
Other than that, IKHLAS also has various Umrah packages with prices starting at RM5,990. Available packages are Umrah Lite, Umrah Jejak Rasul, and Umrah Hawa, all of which will be flying on AirAsia X flights from Kuala Lumpur to Jeddah.
“We have noticed a strong pickup and growth in the Umrah sector since the relaxation of travel restrictions in April, along with a marked shift in Umrah pilgrims’ experiences,” said Aireen Omar, Capital A’s president (ventures), in a press release from June 2022.
Ikhlas Kamarudin, the CEO of IKHLAS, told Vulcan Post that the idea for IKHLAS mainly came from the understanding that Umrah and Islamic services had always been quite traditional.
He also shared that Capital A’s ecosystem, technological resources, and hospitality background allow them to provide this new range of services.
That said, Capital A currently works with multiple parties such as travel agencies, tourism ministries, destination marketing organisations, and other institutions to promote Muslim travel.
New way to shop
An online shopping platform, the IKHLAS Shop offers over 1,000 products from Muslim clothing to halal food, prayer items, Islamic books, personal care essentials, and more.
Aiming to be a one-stop centre for Muslim products, the platform even offers gold dinar and silver dirham coins too.
According to the website, 2.5% of the proceeds from each transaction on IKHLAS Shop will be donated to frontliners and the underprivileged in Malaysia.
Shoppers on the platform will be rewarded with a BIG Point for every RM2 spent.
Making religious practices more accessible than ever
As mentioned, users can pay Zakat, Sadaqah, Aqiqah, Fidyah, and perform Qurban via IKHLAS. Frequently asked questions about each of these practices can be found on the platform as well.
The IKHLAS companion lifestyle app also has other helpful tools such as a Qibla finder and a digital Quran. Muslims can find prayer times on the app too.
There are other Muslim lifestyle apps in Malaysia, though not many seem to be as extensive as IKHLAS. For example, there’s TheNoor, which gives users easy access to the Al-Quran, prayers, Zakat, and more.
However, especially considering IKHLAS’s travel packages and online shop, Capital A’s expertise in super apps, and AirAsia’s extensive network of flights, IKHLAS is arguably in a prime position to become the go-to Muslim travel and lifestyle brand in Malaysia.
This is something Ikhlas Kamarudin believes in as well, sharing that the team aims to be the largest Islamic platform in ASEAN, empowered by their parent company’s network.
“Some of our goals are to achieve more than one million active users as early as next year and also send at least 30,000 Umrah-goers next year,” he said.
Featured Image Credit: Capital A
