Air Asia Ramps Up VIC, WA Services
Low-cost carrier AirAsia appears to have moved quickly to erase the disappointment of missing out on the Sydney-Kuala Lumpur route by lifting capacity out of Perth and Melbourne.
AirAsia will operate twice-daily services between Melbourne and Kuala Lumpur from July 1 and between Perth and the Kuala Lumpur from August 1.
Currently, AirAsia flies daily from Perth and Melbourne to the Malaysian capital.
The chief executive of AirAsia’s long-haul offshoot AirAsiaX Azran Osman-Rani said the new flights reflected healthy demand from Australia. “Loads have been consistently strong year-round on all Australian services,” Mr Osman-Rani said.
This has given us the confidence to increase our capacity particularly on Melbourne and Perth routes and as we grow our network and expand heavily to India.
AirAsia will also boost its Perth-Bali service to 21 flights a week from June 1, up from the current 14.
AirAsia currently flies out of three Australian cities – Melbourne, Perth and the Gold Coast.
AirAsia hoped to make Sydney a fourth by mid-year and had received the green light from local authorities and concluded negotiations with Sydney Airport. But it failed to get approval from the Malaysian government in time for the July 1 start date, forcing the airline to abort plans to fly to Australia’s most populous city for now.
AirAsia said its recently launched flatbed premium seats currently available between Melbourne and Kuala Lumpur would be progressively added to flights from the Gold Coast and Perth this month.
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