For years, Santan was known simply as AirAsia’s inflight catering service.
Like airline food itself, it faced the same stereotype, something passengers ate out of convenience rather than excitement.
Catherine Goh wanted to change that.
When she became CEO of Santan, the food and beverage business under Capital A, she wasn’t just trying to improve inflight meals. She wanted people to stop thinking of Santan as “airline food” altogether and start seeing it as a food brand that proudly celebrates Southeast Asian flavours.
Today, that vision has turned Santan into far more than AirAsia’s inflight catering arm.
The brand now reaches customers through restaurants, ready-to-eat meals, coffee, retail products, and e-commerce, while earning recognition for innovation and sustainability across the region.
Yet Catherine’s journey to the top began far away from boardrooms and business awards.
The Lessons She Learned Long Before Becoming A CEO
Long before she was leading one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing food brands, Catherine spent much of her childhood helping her mother sell fruits.
Her mornings were often spent at the local market, while evenings continued at the pasar malam, where the family tried to sell whatever stock remained before it spoiled.
Life wasn’t easy.
Growing up in a family of seven, money was always tight. Her parents struggled with debt, and she has shared that loan sharks regularly came to the family stall to collect repayments. They taught her lessons that would stay with her for life.
She learned the importance of cash flow, long before she understood the term. She learned that every customer mattered, every ringgit counted, and when life became difficult, the only choice was to keep moving forward.
“I never thought it was adversity,” she once reflected.
“You just stay grounded, do your best every day and keep moving.”
Those values would later become the foundation of her leadership.
The Dream She Was Forced To Let Go
Like many young Malaysians, Catherine believed education could open doors that hard work alone could not.
She earned a place to study medicine in the United States, while her sister helped support part of her tuition fees. Determined not to become a burden, Catherine worked four jobs at the same time to pay for her living expenses and part of her education.
Then everything changed.
The 2008 global financial crisis severely affected her sister’s business, making it impossible to continue funding her studies.
Despite earning excellent academic results, Catherine had no choice but to leave medical school and return to Malaysia.
For many people, that could have been the end of a dream.
For Catherine, it became the beginning of another.
Looking back, she believes the experience taught her one of life’s hardest lessons.
“Life is not fair. But life really has a better plan if you stop controlling every detail of it.”
Instead of asking, “Why me?”, she asked, “What’s next?”
That mindset would shape every major decision she made afterwards.
One Small Decision Changed Everything
Back in Malaysia, Catherine received an unexpected opportunity.
Someone recommended her for an interview to become Executive Assistant to AirAsia co-founder Tony Fernandes.
There was just one problem.
She didn’t know what an Executive Assistant actually did.
In fact, she has openly admitted that she didn’t even know who Tony Fernandes was until she searched for his name online.
Most people would have hesitated. Catherine simply said yes.
She got the job. The following day, she was told she would be flying to London.
She learned by doing.
That experience completely changed how she viewed opportunities.
Today, one of her most quoted pieces of advice is remarkably simple:
“First of all, you need to say yes even when you don’t feel ready.”
Working alongside Tony Fernandes also taught her how leaders think.
She learned that leadership isn’t about having every answer. It is about staying calm in uncertainty, listening more than speaking, and helping people move towards a shared goal.
Those lessons would later become invaluable when she took charge of Santan.
How Catherine Goh Changed Santan
When Catherine became CEO, Santan already had one huge advantage.
Millions of passengers knew the brand.
The challenge was that many still associated it with the old stereotype of airline food.
Instead of immediately changing the menu, Catherine started by listening.
She immersed herself in passenger data, customer feedback, purchasing behaviour, and market trends to understand what travellers actually wanted.
“I immersed myself—studied the data, obsessed over customer insights, and rebuilt the business with a commercial mindset.”
The more she studied, the more she realised the biggest obstacle wasn’t the food itself.
It was perception.
People had already decided airline food wasn’t worth getting excited about.
Catherine believed that mindset could be changed.
“First, let’s retire the outdated narrative that ‘airline food sucks.’ It’s lazy and, frankly, no longer true.”
That belief transformed the company’s strategy.
Instead of creating meals people merely accepted, Santan began creating meals people genuinely anticipated.
One of the biggest success stories was Pak Nasser’s Nasi Lemak, which became one of AirAsia’s signature inflight dishes and something many passengers looked forward to ordering every time they flew.
As Catherine puts it: “At Santan, we don’t believe in airline food—we believe in good food, period.”
Suddenly, airline meals were no longer just part of the journey.
They became part of the experience.
Taking Santan Beyond The Skies
Success onboard inspired an even bigger question.
If passengers loved Santan while flying, why should they only enjoy it in the air?
That simple idea became the company’s next stage of growth.
Under Catherine’s leadership, the brand expanded into restaurants, ready-to-eat meals, freeze-dried coffee, coffee capsules, supermarkets, convenience stores, and e-commerce.
At the same time, she modernised operations by introducing AI-powered demand forecasting and digitised logistics, helping reduce food waste, improve inventory planning, lower operating costs, and maintain consistent food quality across hundreds of flights and outlets.
She also ensured growth never came at the expense of responsibility.
The company introduced compostable packaging made from renewable materials, strengthened partnerships with local farmers and suppliers across ASEAN, supported Capital A’s Net Zero 2050 commitment, and invested in supplier development and culinary upskilling programmes.
For Catherine, building Santan has never been just about serving more meals.
It has always been about creating opportunities; for customers, employees, entrepreneurs, suppliers, and local communities.
More Than Airline Food
In 2025, Santan received the Industry Champion of the Year award at the Asia Corporate Excellence & Sustainability (ACES) Awards, recognising the company’s transformation and commitment to sustainable growth.
Catherine herself has also been recognised among Asia’s Most Admirable Young Leaders, featured in Prestige Malaysia’s 40 Under 40 and Women of Power List 2025, named one of Malaysia’s Top 30 Young Entrepreneurs 2025, and honoured with the Shanghai Honourable Women Entrepreneur (SHE) Award 2025.
Despite those achievements, she still believes the best leaders begin by listening.
“One of the most powerful lessons I’ve learned as CEO is the extraordinary power of listening—to customers, to data, and to the subtle shifts in culture.”
Looking back, perhaps that lesson started much earlier than she realised.
Long before she was leading Santan, she was listening to customers at a fruit stall, learning the value of every sale and every conversation.
From helping her mother at the pasar malam to transforming Santan into a regional food brand, Catherine Goh’s story is proof that remarkable journeys rarely begin in remarkable places.
Sometimes, they begin with one opportunity, one decision, and the courage to simply say yes.
Sources: 1| 2| 3
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