AirAsia X to offer $1000 return to London

[SeaWolf]

Travel Biz Monitor :: AirAsia X offers reduced fares between Australia and London

AirAsia X will offer regular fares between Australia and London for AUD 1,000 (plus taxes/charges), by end 2008. The airline plans to expand in Australia with a second port, which is expected to be finalised by May 2008.

The flight between Gold Coast and London will routed through Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Azran Osman-Rani, CEO, AirAsia X states, “We are a point-to-point service, so a passenger will have to buy two tickets; Gold Coast-KL and KL-London. Although, we have promotional fares and lower fares for bookings far in advance, on average, we are looking at a combined price of AUD 1,000, for both round-trip tickets”.

I don't know if the super low-cost model is such a great idea on such long flights...

 

[moa999]

Assume this is excluding +++

Cheapest (Economy Promo fares) OOL-KUL looking randomly in July
are $222 oneway, reg fare $259
and taxes are $137/108

So regular OOL-KUL is $763all-in or $518+++

Assume the KUL-LHR leg would be more expensive given longer flight times and the LHR airport charges (assuming they are flying to LHR which may not be the case given it is AirAsia)


Interestingly JQ fare are quite comparable on SYD-KUL
Reg fare (JetSaver non-light) is $228
taxes $150/170

So regular SYD-KUL is $776all-in or $456+++

 

[Travel Guru]

http://www.travelbizmonitor.com/ArticleDetails.aspx?aid=2493&sid=36&sname=Top StoriesI don't know if the super low-cost model is such a great idea on such long flights...

There's definately a certain sector of the market which will be attracted to this type of fare, but i'm not sure there will be a large enough market to make it viable.

TG

 

[oz_mark]

There's definately a certain sector of the market which will be attracted to this type of fare, but i'm not sure there will be a large enough market to make it viable.

TG

It will be interesting to see how long haul LCC plays out.

 

[Paul_PER]

I understand they currently use leased aircraft. It's rumoured that the A330-300's they have on order will be 396 seats at 9 across (only a mere 99 seats more than the Qantas A333 I flew yesterday!).

This seating configuration may work if you're 5 foot tall and weigh 100 pounds. 6 footers may give this airline a pass.

 

[Travel Guru]

I'd much rather keep paying for J to save myself arriving feeling like a dogs breakfast

TG

 

[moa999]

I understand they currently use leased aircraft. It's rumoured that the A330-300's they have on order will be 396 seats at 9 across (only a mere 99 seats more than the Qantas A333 I flew yesterday!).

This seating configuration may work if you're 5 foot tall and weigh 100 pounds. 6 footers may give this airline a pass.

396 at 3/3/3 across is only 44 rows.

Qantas 333s (seatguru map)
have 5 business rows at 2/2/2
and 35 economy at 2/4/2

Strip out 5 business rows, strip out a galley - plenty of room for 9 more economy rows.

So don't think the leg room will be that different - pity about the seat width.

 

[Paul_PER]

I understand they currently use leased aircraft. It's rumoured that the A330-300's they have on order will be 396 seats at 9 across (only a mere 99 seats more than the Qantas A333 I flew yesterday!).

This seating configuration may work if you're 5 foot tall and weigh 100 pounds. 6 footers may give this airline a pass.

Following the launch of PER-KUL this week I just booked a cheapish "XL Promo" flight.

The seat map came back as two-class:

4 rows x 7 "XL" seats
36 rows x 9 then narrowing to
7 rows x 7 at the back

Excluding what looks like 4 seats on exit rows the seat count (after taking off my shoes and socks and getting out the abacus) was 397.

The XL seats are listed per the AirAsia web-site as 58 inch pitch. The economy as 32 inches.

I'm not going until April 09 so I wouldn't hold your breathe waiting for my trip report!

Haven't been to KL before so any recommendations for a long weekend there?