Air Asia Pulls Out Of Europe & Reduces India Services

[theoldgit]

Air Asia X have announced that they are suspending or reducing their services to Europe and India because of soaring taxes and higher jet fuel prices, they will concentrate capacity in their core markets of Australasia, China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea they add that announcements regarding their future expansion plans will be made soon.

Their flights to Mumbai cease after 31 January, and the Delhi route will be reduced from daily to four flights a week.

The flights to London and Paris will be suspended after the 31 & 30 March respectively.

Bit of a shame that, I was in the process of planning a trip to Europe next year using their premium seats.

I suppose the bigger carriers will be pleased with the loss of competition

[PattayaPhom]

Living in Thailand they were never any good anyway...by the time you got to KL then dumped at Stanstead and all the add ons for baggage, entertainment, food etc it was a longer journey that cost more...so not really a loss for Thai residents.

[Jangot]

Living in Thailand they were never any good anyway...by the time you got to KL then dumped at Stanstead and all the add ons for baggage, entertainment, food etc it was a longer journey that cost more...so not really a loss for Thai residents.

Well, 'dumped' in Stansted is nor bad for everyone...lots of folk like myself going to Essex, Kent, East Anglia etc would prefer Stansted to the pain of getting to Heathrow.

[theoldgit]

We were planning a flight to London Gatwick and returning from Paris, using their Premium seats it would have cost about the same as an economy flight with the big boys, the side trip to KL was going to be part of the vacation.

Oh well back to the drawing board.

[NxaiPan]

Probably fits in with Tony Fernandes' plans for Malaysian Airways where since his arrival they too have been rationalizing flights to Europe and the Gulf and Firefly has been largely canned.

Watch this space for the next thrilling instalment of MAS/AA, an unfolding saga to be continued.

[Boycie]

Absoultely gutted!!

I booked 2 one-way, BKK-KUL-STN, tickets back in May 2011 for travel in April 2012 for the total bargin price of 15,000Baht.

When they switched to Gatwick, wasn't a problem. But now they've suspended the flights, i'm in tears.

[Sam Drucker]

Can't say I would have considered using them anyway for their economy product when I saw the layout on their A330's and A340's. They have an extra seat jammed into each row to make it 9-across 3-3-3 seating instead of the normal 8-across 2-4-2. Don't want to ride that way! My arms and shoulders are already scrunched enough in a normal setup, let alone when some bunch of airline executives and accountants make it worse for the passengers just to try to achieve some numbers.

[theblether]

As a rule of thumb they were approx the same price as other carriers on the BKK-London route ( I accept you could get the occasional special offer though ) so no major loss.

[jalansanitwong]

Ryannair boss O'leary said years ago that he would never get involved in long haul flights due to the expense of flying into hub and even secondary airports plus aviation fuel etc.It now appears even flying into Stansted is unprofitable. The big carriers continue with long haul flights only because theyre subsidised by the home taxpayer. How much longer before BA,KLM-AF ,SAS, Swiss,Alitalia and Olympic go bust again. Most of these airlines went out of business years ago but came back to life with taxpayer bailouts. BA is nothing more than the resurrected corpse of BOAC.

The airline industry is the worst business in the world to get involved in along with cars.

Everyone wants to fly in state of the art airplanes but for the lowest possible price and free fares with FF Program. Unreal.

Edited January 13, 2012 by jalansanitwong

[NxaiPan]

Ryannair boss O'leary said years ago that he would never get involved in long haul flights due to the expense of flying into hub and even secondary airports plus aviation fuel etc.It now appears even flying into Stansted is unprofitable. The big carriers continue with long haul flights only because theyre subsidised by the home taxpayer. How much longer before BA,KLM-AF ,SAS, Swiss,Alitalia and Olympic go bust again. Most of these airlines went out of business years ago but came back to life with taxpayer bailouts. BA is nothing more than the resurrected corpse of BOAC.

The airline industry is the worst business in the world to get involved in along with cars.

Everyone wants to fly in state of the art airplanes but for the lowest possible price and free fares with FF Program. Unreal.

Warren Buffett said that airlines were a great leap for mankind but a disaster for investors (and he should know having done very poorly with a stake in UsAir and lost a bundle on NetJets in the late 1990's, an investment he put down to "temporary insanity").

There cannot be many industries that have never made a cumulative net profit since inception but which remain in business 109 years later.

[khaan]

Ryannair boss O'leary said years ago that he would never get involved in long haul flights due to the expense of flying into hub and even secondary airports plus aviation fuel etc.It now appears even flying into Stansted is unprofitable. The big carriers continue with long haul flights only because theyre subsidised by the home taxpayer. How much longer before BA,KLM-AF ,SAS, Swiss,Alitalia and Olympic go bust again. Most of these airlines went out of business years ago but came back to life with taxpayer bailouts. BA is nothing more than the resurrected corpse of BOAC.

The airline industry is the worst business in the world to get involved in along with cars.

Everyone wants to fly in state of the art airplanes but for the lowest possible price and free fares with FF Program. Unreal.

I was very surprised to hear on Channel News Asia earlier this week that every single airline in India

is very deep in debt and struggling to survive? and that was meant to be the most promising market

[Boycie]

[NxaiPan]

Ryannair boss O'leary said years ago that he would never get involved in long haul flights due to the expense of flying into hub and even secondary airports plus aviation fuel etc.It now appears even flying into Stansted is unprofitable. The big carriers continue with long haul flights only because theyre subsidised by the home taxpayer. How much longer before BA,KLM-AF ,SAS, Swiss,Alitalia and Olympic go bust again. Most of these airlines went out of business years ago but came back to life with taxpayer bailouts. BA is nothing more than the resurrected corpse of BOAC.

The airline industry is the worst business in the world to get involved in along with cars.

Everyone wants to fly in state of the art airplanes but for the lowest possible price and free fares with FF Program. Unreal.

I was very surprised to hear on Channel News Asia earlier this week that every single airline in India

is very deep in debt and struggling to survive? and that was meant to be the most promising market

Sadly not a surprise. India is one of the world's largest airline markets but it suffers from a heavily subsidized and thus customers at any price Air India; too many low cost operators, some like Kingfisher as vanity toys for their owners and an excuse to interview shapely FAs; a weak rupee with oil priced in US$; state governments using airlines as a source of revenue; and stitching all these together the shambolic state of India's political and legal infrastructure.

In a nutshell in China you get financially shafted by the greedy politically-connected; in India you get shafted by the chaos and shambles of government.

[jubby]

I thought I'd give them a try. difficult to beat them for one way flights. paid 192 pounds for the economy seat which I wasn't really looking forward to and entered a sort of lottery for a premium upgrade which cost a further 139 pounds.

just had confirmation of my upgrade, so a direct flight to Gatwick with a flatbed seat for 331 pounds.

Looks like its just going to be a one off experience .

[folium]

Absoultely gutted!!

I booked 2 one-way, BKK-KUL-STN, tickets back in May 2011 for travel in April 2012 for the total bargin price of 15,000Baht.

When they switched to Gatwick, wasn't a problem. But now they've suspended the flights, i'm in tears.

Are you being offered a MAS flight KUL-LON or just a refund?

MAS is taking the slots freed up by AAX so you could just be getting a different carrier and into LHR rather than Gatwick.

[CMExpat79]

we had also had flights booked for june so receieved the email saying our flights we cancelled too. did you contact air asia, or shoudl i wait for them to contact me.

the problem i have is i am in chiang mai, so i booked 3 flights to get back to the uk. ie CM > BKK then BKK to KL and finally KL to gatwick.

I guess they wont refund the first 2 flights i had? I booked them all to match up so its a bit of a pain in the butt!

[Boycie]

Absoultely gutted!!

I booked 2 one-way, BKK-KUL-STN, tickets back in May 2011 for travel in April 2012 for the total bargin price of 15,000Baht.

When they switched to Gatwick, wasn't a problem. But now they've suspended the flights, i'm in tears.

Are you being offered a MAS flight KUL-LON or just a refund?

MAS is taking the slots freed up by AAX so you could just be getting a different carrier and into LHR rather than Gatwick.

I'm waiting to hear from Air Asia. They wrote that they would be retrospectively emailing everyone affected.

Has anyone else had an email with the options available?

[atyclb]

Absoultely gutted!!

I booked 2 one-way, BKK-KUL-STN, tickets back in May 2011 for travel in April 2012 for the total bargin price of 15,000Baht.

When they switched to Gatwick, wasn't a problem. But now they've suspended the flights, i'm in tears.

Are you being offered a MAS flight KUL-LON or just a refund?

MAS is taking the slots freed up by AAX so you could just be getting a different carrier and into LHR rather than Gatwick.

I'm waiting to hear from Air Asia. They wrote that they would be retrospectively emailing everyone affected.

Has anyone else had an email with the options available?

Anyone using / affected by airasia should have a look at their facebook page. There are scores of aa customers waiting on refunds, some for 1 year or more. Many report well documented personal experiences with aa customer (dis)service, and other travel related loving experiences.

[spidermike007]

Living in Thailand they were never any good anyway...by the time you got to KL then dumped at Stanstead and all the add ons for baggage, entertainment, food etc it was a longer journey that cost more...so not really a loss for Thai residents.

I could not disagree more. They are a lovely airline. One must be aware of the add ons. You bring your own food, travel very light, carry on as much as possible, etc. I have saved a tremendous amount of money using them over the years. Especially with their super sales, if you are able to plan well in advance. Lately they have been much more timely than in the past, and the planes are nearly new most of the time. Plus, the flight attendants are gorgeous. What more can a man ask?

[sawadeeken]

we had also had flights booked for june so receieved the email saying our flights we cancelled too. did you contact air asia, or shoudl i wait for them to contact me.

the problem i have is i am in chiang mai, so i booked 3 flights to get back to the uk. ie CM > BKK then BKK to KL and finally KL to gatwick.

I guess they wont refund the first 2 flights i had? I booked them all to match up so its a bit of a pain in the butt!

I read your message and have had a similar experience. A few years ago I had a ticket (AirAsia) from BKK to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, then from Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Lumpur and another Kuala Lumpur back to BKK. They canceled all flights from BKK to Kota Kinabalu and refunded to my Credit card. I had to call them to arrange refund for the other tickets which they hesitated to do but I was persistent that I couldn't use the other tickets due to the fact that they had 'broke their contract' with me by cancelling the one flight, so they agreed to fully refund the other tickets. Nothing happened for a couple months, then after about 2 or 3 more calls, within a few days I saw (online) a refund to my card - but only the cheaper of the two tickets. So I called again and used the fact that they had already refunded one of the tickets (somewhat setting a presidence) and finally after a couple more weeks I got the final credit. Another thing to keep in mind is that most credit cards protect you from losing your money when you don't receive value for what you charged to your card - so talk to your credit card company too. One last thing, an airline ticket is actually a 'contract' between them and you, and them breaking the 'contract' puts them at a disadvantage and gives you 'leverage'.... Good Luck.....

[shadh]

Just Tweeted this storys link to Tony Fernandes - maybe he's too busy today worrying about QPR and Malaysian basketball...

[mrdome]

paid 192 pounds for the economy seat which I wasn't really looking forward to and entered a sort of lottery for a premium upgrade which cost a further 139 pounds.

just had confirmation of my upgrade, so a direct flight to Gatwick with a flatbed seat for 331 pounds.

Looks like its just going to be a one off experience .

Needless to say, that is an amazing deal, congratulations.

I also believe the LCC concept works best for short to medium haul routes and even there one has to suffer sometimes. Yet, the savings are undeniable IF everything works out as planned.

I myself could not resist when I casually looked up their fares from BKK to PP and spotted a 5 Euro fare (plus 20 for taxes) for Songran Sunday, when I wanted to make the trek anyway.

[fasteddie]

Living in Thailand they were never any good anyway...by the time you got to KL then dumped at Stanstead and all the add ons for baggage, entertainment, food etc it was a longer journey that cost more...so not really a loss for Thai residents.

I agree, did the KL to Stansted once cos I live near Stansted, still not worth it though, after you tot it all up, lots of other airlines cheaper and better service. They stopped going to Stansted as well, good riddance!

[canda]

Living in Thailand they were never any good anyway...by the time you got to KL then dumped at Stanstead and all the add ons for baggage, entertainment, food etc it was a longer journey that cost more...so not really a loss for Thai residents.

I agree, did the KL to Stansted once cos I live near Stansted, still not worth it though, after you tot it all up, lots of other airlines cheaper and better service. They stopped going to Stansted as well, good riddance!

Perhaps you didn't book far enough ahead to avail yourself to the best fare with AAX, we have flown several times from KL to Stansted and more recently from KL to Gatwick, also flying AA between Phuket and KL thus utilising the inexpensive fares on that route as well, our average fare KL to UK each time has been around 20,000 baht return each, so we couldn't complain, so what if you have to book your food / beverage etc. when you buy your flights, it really doesn't add that much more to the overall cost. We will miss AAX as we have never had a bad experience with them, looks like we will be using Singapore Airlines or MAS from now on in though.

If you really want to feel ripped off, try upgrading from a economy seat to business (very loosly speaking) on a certain budget airline from here to Australia, via a call centre (as our internet had gone down as we were in the middle of the booking process) huge mistake, not much change from 150,000 baht for 2 return tickets and service was as bad, have'nt used them since, now we fly via Singapore on Singapore Airlines...A380... their economy service far surpasses the alternative including their supposed "business class" service.

CANDA

[Boycie]

Just got a reply back from AirAsia X..... decisions, decisions?

Quote 'Good day and thank you for writing in to us.

We apologise for any inconvenience due to the suspension of our flights from London, with effect from 1^st April 2012.

With regards to your query on the options which are available for all affected guest, they are:

i. cancel your reservation and opt for Full Refund/Credit Shell; or

ii. re-route to any other AirAsia X destination, without any additional cost; or

iii. transfer to an alternative airline subject to availability, without any additional cost.

However if you wish to move to an alternative airline, please be informed that we are currently in the process of making alternative flight arrangements for our guests.

However, we would like to request that you write in to us if you wish to move to an alternative airline, only after receiving the individual notification which outlines the full details of the service recovery we are able to offer to you.

We would be sending this individual notification to yourself earliest by the end of Feb and this is to avoid any undue congestion or delays in us attending to all our affected guests.

Please be assured we will exercise our best efforts to enable you to travel onto the same dates you had earlier booked with us with an alternate airline.

On another note, if you wish to make your own arrangements, we would be able to cancel the booking and process a full refund. The refund will approximately take 30 working days.

Should you have any other concerns or enquiries, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Regards

AirAsia X'

[theoldgit]

On another note, if you wish to make your own arrangements, we would be able to cancel the booking and process a full refund. The refund will approximately take 30 working days.

Regards

AirAsia X'

Isn't it amazing that when you book with AA they can debit your card instantly, but when they cancel services and they have to refund your money it takes 30 working days, so six weeks.

I'm normally a fan of Air Asia but they haven't acted very well in this instance, I think the announcement of introducing their service to Sydney was made with undue haste, and has done little to pacify the customers they have let down.

They are being slaughtered on their Facebook page.

Edited January 17, 2012 by theoldgit

[Boycie]

Just recieved another email from Air Asia X regarding my cancelled flight to London.

Thank you very much Air Asia X, i look forward to hearing all about my alternative flights.

Dear Valued Guest,

We understand everyone is anxious to get confirmations on available alternative flights (Option 3), and we are working furiously to get everything done.

We are committed to providing those that need alternate flights with seats on other airlines.

We have block-booked seats with other airlines to cater for this.

However, as we are dealing with other airline’s reservation systems, our call centre operators and sales office staff do not have access to their reservation systems, and cannot process bookings.

As such, we respectfully request that you do not call our call centre or visit our sales offices to book alternative flights.

A separate team is liaising with other airlines to send our passenger details to them, for them to complete the booking.

This has to be done in batches, by flights. If we were to do individual bookings, moving from different travel dates, it will take even longer.

The alternative flights from London will be from Heathrow and Paris will be from Charles de Gaulle.

As for alternative flights from Mumbai and Delhi, it will depart/arrive from the same airport which you have been booked on.

While most of our passengers will be able to get seats on the same day of travel, there may be limited instances where we can only get a seat within +/- 1 day.

You should expect the emails with details of the alternative flight bookings two months before your scheduled flight date.

We are working to ensure we can do it even faster than that, but we have to work within the parameters of other airlines’ systems and processes.

If you absolutely need immediate confirmation because of pressing travel requirements, may we suggest that you opt for Option 1 (full refund).

Those who have sent us emails on refund requests are already being attended to.

For those who want this option, please send booking reference number to [email protected].

Several have already asked about Option-2 (re-route), including wanting to get on our new flights to Sydney. This is possible.

You may also change the travel date or change the name of the passenger, all at no additional fees.

Please send requests with booking reference number to [email protected].

For Option 2 (re-route) we will process the new itinerary within 1 week and please do include the following details below in the request:

1. Departure Airport:

2. Departure Date:

3. Return Airport:

4. Return Date:

We understand you may also have queries on connecting transfers from Kuala Lumpur to other final destinations.

We will work to accommodate all of the different individual requirements, including changing flight date if the new alternative flights no longer meets connection times (at no additional fees).

We ask that these issues are brought up once the emails go out with the details of the alternative flights.

Once again, we are truly sorry for the inconvenience the flight cancellations have caused, and we remain fully committed to attending to every guest.

We humbly seek your kind understanding and patience and we work through the many individual cases involved.

Sincerely,

AirAsia X

[wellred]

Just to confirm, flying the other way ie London to BKK is still carrying on bau? I have never used them for a long haul flight but am planning my next trip so was considering them.

[theoldgit]

Just to confirm, flying the other way ie London to BKK is still carrying on bau? I have never used them for a long haul flight but am planning my next trip so was considering them.

They have never flown the BKK-LON route. But to answer your question, if they have stopped flying into London, I can only assume they have stopped flying out of London

[wileycoyote]

Disappointing their service is being curtailed.

Qantas also from Spring no longer flying Heathrow-Bangkok

Sign of difficult economic times