Re: Air Asia ready for China, Australia
Business Times
PEOPLE bitten by the cheap travel bug can now spread their wings further with the arrival of AirAsia X’s first Airbus A330. The country’s first long-haul budget carrier will fly to China and Australia.
The plane, which is on a six-year lease, touched down at the low-cost carrier terminal here on Sunday at 12.25pm from Honolulu, Hawaii, AirAsia X chief executive officer Azran Osman Rani said the inaugural flight, called “Semangat Sir Freddie” (after Sir Freddie Laker, founder of the first low-cost airline in the United Kingdom), would probably be in the middle of next month.
Azran said the landing rights for both destinations had been obtained, but AirAsiawas stillwaiting for the final air operating certificate from the Department of Civil Aviation.
Its first destination will depend on which country gets the final paperwork done first.
“The inaugural flight will be right after Hari Raya. Whoever sends us the paperwork first, we will fly there,” said Azran.
The flight schedule has yet to be released, but Azran said the plane would alternate between China and Australia.
“With this plane, we will have at least five flights a week to China and four to Australia.” In a first for AirAsia, there will be a “premium” economy class, similar to business class on a regular airline.
“The seats are more comfortable, but that’s all you get—just the seat.
No business class lounge or other extras.
A lot of people who travel are after just that, a more comfortable seat. ” A premium economy seat is a little more than double the price of a normal seat on the A330. It will be about the same as the economy fare on a full service airline.
AirAsia will also offer another first — fixed-back shell seats in economy class. Passengers will not have to recline their seats into the lap of the person behind them. Instead, the seat will slide forward. Such seats are normally found in business class.
Azran said fares would be what Malaysians had come to expect and enjoy from AirAsia to places like Indonesia and Thailand.
AirAsia X will land at airports that do not have direct connections with Kuala Lumpur. Thus, it will head to cities like Tianjin and Chengdu in China and Avalon (near Melbourne), Gold Coast (near Brisbane) and Newcastle (near Sydney).
Azran said AirAsia X would get more planes in the first half of next year, including the Airbus A340, which can fly non-stop to Britain.