KUALA LUMPUR: Budget carrier AirAsia X Bhd (AAX) has announced that it will be flying from Kuala Lumpur to London, Dubai and Istanbul this year, as it tries to recapture profitable long-haul routes post-reopening of international travels.
It is noteworthy that this is the first time for debt-laden AAX to offer flights to Dubai and Istanbul.
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In an event today (Wednesday) to “relaunch” AAX, its CEO Benyamin Ismail also said four new medium-haul routes to Japan and Hawaii have been launched, which are all on sale from today.
With the new medium-haul routes, the budget carrier offers flights across seven popular routes from Kuala Lumpur to New Delhi, Sydney, Seoul (Incheon), Tokyo (Haneda), Sapporo (Chitose), Osaka (Kansai), and from Osaka (Kansai) to Honolulu.
“All of these routes are on sale from today until June 26, 2022, for travel between July 1, 2022, to March 26, 2023, starting from RM499 (all-in-fare one way) for economy seats and from RM1,499 for a premium flatbed,” the company said.
Benyamin pointed out that the resumption of four routes to Japan and Hawaii and the launch of flights to London, Istanbul and Dubai is “just the beginning”.
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He said that more destinations are in the pipeline and would be announced soon, in order to meet the strong pent-up demand.
“As our services grow, we will continue to bring our fleet of aircraft out of hibernation and, we can look forward to gradually bringing our valued pilots and cabin crew who were on furlough back.
“I am confident all of our resumed or new services will prove to be very popular and that we will return to pre-Covid-19 capacity on some of our core routes within the next 12 months.
“Our strategic new model, combining cargo and passengers enables AirAsia X to fly profitably where other airlines may not be able to, which makes operations to longer-haul routes like Dubai, Istanbul and London, commercially viable and more affordable for our guests at the same time,” he said.