Airasia Eyes 12 Daily Bangkok - Kuala Lumpur Flights

[george]

AirAsia eyes 12 daily Bangkok-KL flights

KUALA LUMPUR: -- AirAsia is likely to have 12 daily flights to serve the Bangkok-Kuala Lumpur route in future as passenger capacity is expected to grow once Fly Asian Xpress (FAX) starts its long-haul operations to destinations like London in July this year.

Thai AirAsia chief executive officer (CEO) Tassapon Bijleveld said that doubling the present frequency will allow more seats to be offered and make it easier and more convenient for people to travel.

"When we talk about 12 flights daily, people think we are crazy. But the market is there and we want to tap it," he said in an interview in Bangkok.

Currently, Thai AirAsia flies twice a day while its Malaysian parent company operates four flights, Tassapon said, adding that the frequency would be increased gradually as more new aircraft are received.

He said while Thai AirAsia was not directly involved with FAX, it will eventually benefit from the new venture as more travellers from Europe and other routes are expected to fly from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok, or other cities served by it.

Using the brand AirAsia X, under franchise from AirAsia, FAX, in which AirAsia CEO Datuk Tony Fernandes has a 50 per cent stake, has been given rights to operate long-haul flights to destinations in Asia, Australia and Europe.

On the expansion of routes in Malaysia, Tassapon said that Thai AirAsia, which currently flies to Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Kota Kinabalu and recent addition Langkawi, will love to fly to a city in Sarawak but it may take some time.

"We have covered all the big cities that Thais know very well. Just ask the Thais which cities they know in Malaysia, they will mention Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Langkawi. For Kota Kinabalu, we did lot of promotions and it is bearing fruit now with very good load factor," he said.

The Kota Kinabalu route was almost shelved last year due to high fuel prices but Thai AirAsia decided to keep it as the load factor was good, he said.

On the Langkawi route which started on January 6, Tassapon said the airline expects good response due to the island's duty-free status, beautiful beaches and other attractions like cable cars.

The airline currently flies domestic routes to Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Hat Yai, Krabi, Narathiwat, Phuket, Surat Thani, Ubon Ratchathani and Udon Thani while overseas destinations include Phnom Penh, Macau, Xiamen, Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Rangoon, Singapore, Hanoi and Langkawi.

- Bernama. MY 2007-01-12

[Mid]

now I got it ......................

quality tourists do visa runs by plane .....................

[PhilHarries]

now I got it ......................

quality tourists do visa runs by plane .....................

Yeah, and by budget airline.

I've flown AirAsia several times last year. The service is great but the LCCT here in KL sucks big time.

The whole AirAsia thing is really targetting Asians. Each time I've flown you can almost count the white faces on the fingers of one hand.