AirAsia X arrives at Melbourne Airport

AirAsia X’s inaugural flight from Kuala Lumpur to Victoria touched down at Melbourne Airport on time at 11.40am launching a new era of international air travel between Victoria and Malaysia. The carrier touched down on Melbourne Airport’s tarmac using the airline’s airbus A330-300.

 

AirAsia X will service the route between Melbourne and Kuala Lumpur initially with four return flights per week. The airline has announced plans to upgrade this schedule to daily return flights during the peak season from 18-Dec to 16-Jan-09. Daily return flights will then commence from Mar-09.
 
AirAsia X now services three Australian destinations including Melbourne, Perth (six weekly return flights) and the Gold Coast (four weekly return flights). The airline also operates five return flights each week between Kuala Lumpur and Hangzhou (Shanghai) in China.
 
Chief Executive Officer of AirAsia X, Azran Osman-Rani said, “After months of planning it is very exciting to see our well known red and white logo out on the tarmac,” Mr Osman-Rani said. “We’re expecting this route to perform strongly as it is one of the most requested Australian destinations from our Malaysian guests and we know Melbourne travellers are keen to have regular, affordable travel options to Malaysia. Since commencing sales in September 2007 we have sold over 400,000 Air Asia X seats to date on our route network and over 60,000 between Melbourne -  KL, which is the highest performing new route."
 
“Kuala Lumpur - Melbourne is an under-served route and one which is plagued by exorbitant fuel surcharges imposed by full service carriers. There is definitely a huge gap in this particular market for affordable travel. An increasing number of passengers need to use this route on a regular basis for leisure, education and family travel purposes and it’s great to know we can meet their needs with a service that offers value and reliability.”
  


(c) Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. Date posted: 13-Nov-08


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