Transport

AirAsia plans to resume flights to Europe in 2017

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Yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, AirAsia Bhd Group CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes announced plans to launch two new AirAsia routes to Europe: KL to London and Bangkok to Frankfurt. The airline CEO also announced incredibly low prices for those flights. According to Fernandes, tickets from Bangkok to Frankfurt will cost less than €200 (~RM950) with the possibility of it being as low as €150 (~RM750) due to low fuel costs. It was not immediately clear if Fernandes was referring to one-way or return pricing, but conventional wisdom would suggest these are one-way prices.

European news site Handelsblatt Global quoted Fernandes as saying they are keen on attracting Europeans to holiday in Southeast Asia and to help facilitate Asians who want to explore Europe. “We see this as a mutual market,” Fernandes said at the forum.

AirAsia and AirAsia X currently operate routes to many countries in Asia, Australasia, and the Middle East, but Europe has proven trickier. In 2009, AirAsia X launched the KL-London route. However, they had to suspend all flights to Europe in 2012, including to London and Paris, due to high operating costs.

AirAsia X cleared to fly to USA

Recently, Tan Sri Tony Fernandes announced that AirAsia was seeking approval from the United States’ Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) to fly to the US. In a statement released yesterday, AirAsia announced that the FAA has granted AirAsia X (AirAsia’s low-cost, long-haul sister airline) clearance to fly to any destination in the US, making it Asia’s first low-cost carrier to get the green light.

This will be AirAsia’s first foray into the North American market. As part of their route expansion plans, they are considering several destinations in the US, including the Aloha State of Hawaii. No routes have been announced, nor what transit stops would be required. There are no airlines offering non-stop service to the United States from Kuala Lumpur, though Singapore Airlines recently resumed its non-stop service from Singapore to San Francisco this year using a specially configured Airbus A350-900 aircraft.

It also remains to be seen if the current Airbus A330 aircraft type which is operated by AirAsia X will be utilised on the trans-Pacific routes, and whether or not the seating will be reconfigured for the long flights required.

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Comments

Pietro Scartezzini

Con 100 euro si torna in Asia Manuel Ress hahaha un po’ strettini 😀

Manuel Ress

Il ritardo è incluso nel prezzo??

Pietro Scartezzini

Hahaha e poi quanti cavolo di scali dovrà fare con quegli aerei? O hanno le taniche di benza in stiva? :p

Paulina Ocampo

Plan first to improve your local e national services.

Graeme Laird

If there is a business class with flat beds then ok

Nathan Parry

Hmmm, 12 hours on an Air Asia flight. Nope. I’d rather pay the extra and fly with one of the non budget airlines. It’s fine for regional hops, but I would hate to do intercontinental.

ディディン ゲザ

A direct flight from KL to Paris would be awesome !

Jessica Cuminetti

On revient direct avec Alex ?

Jessica Cuminetti

Pis ce serait tellement de tranquillité une fois dans l’avion. Mais dans tous les cas on essayera de revenir le plus vite possible

ディディン ゲザ

J’espère bien ?
Pour nous aussi avec Petit Pied maintenant on aimerait un vol direct

Jessica Cuminetti

ディディン ゲザ Oh Bah Oui c’est sur parce le pauvre titi à être trimballé partout c’est la galère et ça évitera peut être la perte de valise mdr ?

ディディン ゲザ

Jessica Cuminetti tu m’étonnes !

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