Fly Asian Express to offer flights to UK, China

Kuala Lumpur: Fly Asian Express, a Malaysian airline partly owned by budget carrier tycoon Tony Fernandes, plans to offer long-haul flights to the UK and China at cut-rate fares, an executive said yesterday.
The plan will be unveiled at a news conference tomorrow, the executive told Dow Jones Newswires on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to reveal details beforehand.
He said the local media had wrongly reported that the long-haul budget flights would be operated by AirAsia, the regional no-frills carrier originally founded by Fernandes.
Fernandes is one of the biggest individual shareholders in AirAsia Bhd, and separately owns 50 percent of Fly Asian Express Bhd, which operates turboprop planes in the Malaysian countryside.
Fly Asian Express, also known as FAX, plans to fly from Malaysia to the UK, Europe and China, the executive said, adding that AirAsia, Asia's biggest budget airline, is not involved in the long-haul project.
He said FAX and tycoon Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic have held only preliminary talks about a tie-up.
04/01/07 AP/Taipei Times, Taiwan

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline