At last – AirAsia X Gets its Sydney Wish
Malaysia’s low-cost long-haul carrier AirAsia X confirmed it will begin flying daily between Kuala Lumpur and Sydney from April 2.
AirAsia X is offering one-way launch fares as low as $99 and premium seats for $499.
The budget carrier already flies to the Gold Coast, Melbourne and Perth from Kuala Lumpur.
After suspending long-haul flights to Europe and India, AirAsia X is focusing its attention on destinations closer to its base in Malaysia such as Australia, China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
AirAsia X’s chief executive Azran Osman-Rani said the lesson it had learned from flying to Europe and India was the need for high frequency flights and not to “stretch ourselves too thin”.
The carrier – in which Virgin’s Richard Branson has a 10% stake – has sought for the last four years to fly to Sydney at least twice a day but has been prevented from doing so by the Malaysian government, which has a cornerstone stake in Malaysia Airlines. The latter airline flies between Sydney and Kuala Lumpur.
Azran Osman-Rani
However, AirAsia X has said the launch of Singapore Airline’s new budget offshoot Scoot (that recently announced that it will begin daily services to Sydney from the middle of this year) has helped convince Malaysian regulators to allow it to service more routes. “This is something that we have been pushing very hard,” Mr Osman-Rani said of AirAsia X’s efforts to gain approval to fly to Sydney.
AirAsia X will fly an Airbus A330-300 wide-body aircraft on the Sydney-KL route which will be configured with 13 premium flat-bed seats and 365 economy seats.
The arrival of both AirAsia X and Scoot at Australia’s biggest airport will intensify pressure on beleagured Qantas and it’s budget offshoot, Jetstar as it fumbles its effort to establish its own low cost Asian-based airline based in either Malaysia or Singapore. Qantas’ preferred merger partner is Malaysian Airlines in which AirAsia holds a major stake.
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