This Asian Airline Plans to Open a Fast Food Restaurant Serving Its Inflight Menu
This might be a first. AirAsia's CEO is planning to open a fast food restaurant featuring the Malaysian airline's onboard menu.
"Our food is fantastic," said Tony Fernandes, Air Asia Group's CEO, on Larry King Now last Friday. "We believe in it so much that we're going to start a fast-food restaurant out of it. It's called Santan."
Santan, which translates to 'coconut milk' in Malay, is the name AirAsia's inflight menu.
The food choices stem from data the airlines collected from around 400 million passengers, featuring a variety of dishes ranging from local favorites such as chicken tikka masala with garlic naan, spiral pasta with chicken sausage, Bukhara chicken biryani and plenty more.
TPG contributor Richard Kerr, who flew AirAsia back in 2015, enjoyed his inflight meal (which was the now-discontinued nasi lemak, a Malaysian dish of spicy chicken served with coconut rice) and said that while his inflight meal of the Malaysian national dish didn't earn any points on presentation, he "was happily surprised by its taste," and he was "impressed by AirAsia X's extensive in-flight menu."

While it's most likely the Santan eatery will open in its home country of Malaysia first, further details on when this restaurant will be opening or where have not yet been released. TPG did not receive a response to a request for comment from AirAsia, but according to Skift, an AirAsia spokesperson said that there will be an announcement about it soon.
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The Capital One Venture X Business Card has all the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card has to offer and more. It offers an incredible welcome bonus and requires an equally impressive spend to qualify. In addition, the card comes with premium travel perks like annual travel credit. (Partner offer)Pros
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Cons
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- LIMITED-TIME OFFER: Earn up to 400K bonus miles: 200K miles when you spend $30K in the first 3 months, and an additional 200k miles when you spend $150k in the first 6 months
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- With no preset spending limit, enjoy big purchasing power that adapts so you can spend more and earn more rewards
- Empower your teams to make business purchases while earning rewards on their transactions, with free employee and virtual cards. Plus, automatically sync your transaction data with your accounting software and pay your vendors with ease
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- Every year, you'll get 10,000 bonus miles after your account anniversary date. Plus, receive an annual $300 credit for bookings made through Capital One Business Travel
- Receive up to a $120 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck®. Enjoy access to 1,300+ airport lounges worldwide, including Capital One Lounge locations and Priority Pass™ lounges, after enrollment
- Enjoy a $100 experience credit and other premium benefits with every hotel and vacation rental booked from the Premier Collection
- This is a pay-in-full card, so your balance is due in full every month

