KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 20): Capital A’s Muslim-friendly travel and lifestyle platform, Ikhlas, plans to tap the Indonesian market next year by expanding its umrah and halal travel packages.

Ikhlas chief executive officer Ikhlas Kamarudin said the company foresees huge demand in Indonesia, and expects to launch its product there by early May 2023.

“I feel that we need to get the product a bit [more] ready before we enter the Indonesian market. We’re almost there. By next year, hopefully right before Ramadan or maybe by Ramadan, we will launch our product there,” he told reporters at the launch of the Ikhlas platform here on Thursday (Oct 20).

Ikhlas said Ikhlas aims to have at least one million users within a year after the launch.

Ikhlas started business in April 2020, and took the opportunity of the downtime during the Covid-19 pandemic to accelerate its development to be airasia Super App’s fully fledged Muslim-friendly travel and lifestyle platform.

Spurred by the resumption of AirAsia X flights to Jeddah and many other destinations, Ikhlas now offers many umrah and other travel packages.

Other services available on the Ikhlas platform include digital access to faith-based practices, such as qurban and zakat, as well as other shariah-compliant lifestyle services, including aqiqah, fidyah and sadaqah.

“Besides the ready-made umrah packages that we currently offer, we will also be introducing more flexible, do-it-yourself travel and umrah options, where travellers can customise their trips by selecting their flights, hotels, activities and other add-ons that are curated specifically for Muslims,” Ikhlas said.