About

Driven by her ‘keen interest in aviation’, Jessica Man Hui Sze did not hesitate when she was offered a chance to join AirAsia X (AAX) in May 2017. She then made an immediate positive impression at the company, being made senior legal counsel and taking on the duties of general counsel in February 2018. Now, she advises the senior management of AAX on strategic matters and liaises closely with the board of directors on all subjects related to legal. Man comments on how AirAsia’s philosophy of developing young leadership across the group has encouraged her to hit the ground running and achieve a lot in a short space of time. ‘Within a relatively short time since I made my in-house career debut’, she says, ‘my performance as legal manager was recognised by senior management and I was subsequently given the opportunity to head the legal team of AAX at 30 (as the youngest general counsel in the company and the youngest AirAsia affiliate general counsel across the AirAsia Group)’. Man hopes that this confidence in young leadership championed by AirAsia will resonate with many more corporate players and legal firms. As a disruptor in the long-haul airline market, expansion is a key aim for AAX. Man provides some insight into the expansion in the company’s route network that she has been involved in since taking over: ‘December 2018 saw the first international flight routes into Avalon Airport in Victoria, secured by AAX. As the first international airline to operate into Avalon Airport, I seized the chance to contribute strong advice on infrastructural and system requirements at Avalon Airport to anticipate international traveller traffic and to facilitate the first commercial wide-body aircraft. With my team, I had also helped prepare AAX to be the first low-cost carrier in Southeast Asia to operate scheduled flights into Hawaii in June 2017 when it commenced its flights into Honolulu, Hawaii via Osaka, Japan from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The frequency of this route has now been increased to daily flights in response to increased consumer demand.’