Today, the launch of Kota Kinabalu-Macau direct service was officiated by Secretary for Public Works and Transport of Macau SAR, who was represented by President, Civil Aviation Authority of Macau, Mr Simon W.H. Chan, together with Dato’ Tony Fernandes, Group Chief Executive Officer and Ms Kathleen Tan, Executive Vice President, Commercial, AirAsia.

Kathleen Tan, Executive Vice President, Commercial said, “ Macau today is one of our hottest and most desired destinations where we have recorded significant growth and enjoyed consistently high loads, averaging monthly between 85% to as high as 95% loads. In December 2006, our Kuala Lumpur-Macau route recorded the highest ever load of 99%. With the strong demand, we were encouraged to add our 3 rd daily flight on December 26 2006. With Macau’s strategic position as a gaming and entertainment centre in Asia, we witnessed escalated growth to visit this city from within our vast route network serving 10 ASEAN countries. Our everyday low fares and our point-to-point value proposition have enabled us to fly more people from all the six (6) hubs AirAsia operates. Hence, we are proud to announce that AirAsia have now carried one million guests on the Macau routes within the AirAsia network. This high growth is also contributed to higher seat capacity from our Boeing capacity conversion of 148 seats to 180 seats on our brand new Airbus 320 on our Kuala Lumpur-Macau flights.”

Macau serves as a gateway for both Malaysians to travel to Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and the Pearl Delta region and a good value proposition for Macau tourists and mainland Chinese to come to Malaysia and the ASEAN region with AirAsia’s low fares. This clearly demonstrates that low fare rules as traffic from both sides are hungry for affordable travels.

Adds Dato’ Tony Fernandes, Group CEO, “The timing to commence Kota Kinabalu-Macau daily flights couldn’t have been more perfect as 2007 is “Visit Malaysia Year” and we are confident this new route will help to spur more inbound traffic to our multi-cultural country which boasts exciting shopping, beautiful beaches and gastronomic cuisine, all three being key attractions for the Asian tourists. East Malaysia offers rich eco-tourism, natural wonders, mixed cultures and customs providing an experience unlike any other. We have also proven that people in China are receptive towards online booking. With over 200 countries surfing our website www.airasia.com, China now ranks 5 th highest top country in 2006 in terms of internet traffic that surfed our highly popular website”.

“We would also like to take this opportunity to extend our gratitude to all the parties that has been supporting us, especially Civil Aviation Authority of Macau SAR, Macau International Airport Company Ltd and Macau Government Tourist Office,” he concluded.

Being the first low cost airline and the only Malaysian airline to serve Macau route, AirAsia has spearheaded Macau as the LCC hub, contributing 11.4% of total air traffic in Macau.

AirAsia first started its inaugural flight to Macau from Kuala Lumpur in July 2004 and now flies three (3) times daily from Kuala Lumpur, three (3) times daily from Bangkok and now one (1) daily flight from Kota Kinabalu. The airline operates all-Airbus flights to Macau from Kuala Lumpur.

ABOUT AIRASIA

AirAsia revolutionized air travel in the region to become the leading and largest low fare airline in Asia. Entering into its 5th year, AirAsia to date has an astounding fleet size of 52 aircraft, an achievement the young airline is proud to carry. AirAsia together with its associates Thai AirAsia and Indonesia AirAsia have carried over 30 million passengers. The airline’s extensive network presently serves over 80 domestic and international routes to Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Macau, China (Xiamen), Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar and the Philippines. With a total order of 150 Airbus A320 aircraft and a further 50 options, AirAsia will become the largest A320 operator in Asia, and the 2nd largest in the world by 2012.

FLIGHT SCHEDULE FOR KOTA KINABALU-MACAU ROUTE

FLIGHT SCHEDULE FOR KUALA LUMPUR-MACAU ROUTE

 FLIGHT SCHEDULE FOR BANGKOK-MACAU ROUTE