AirAsia aims to operate 148 weekly flights to India by year end

Mumbai: Malaysia based Low Cost Carrier, AirAsia which has 74 flights a week on Indian routes aims to operate 148 flights a week by year end. Currently operating to Kochi, Kolkata, Trichy and Trivandrum through AirAsia, the airline is inaugurating its Mumbai-Bangkok operations through AirAsiaX (the long-haul low cost brand by AirAsia) on May 6, 2010. Apart from Mumbai, the airline plans to start flights on Bangkok-Delhi, Bangkok-Kolkata and Bangkok-Amritsar routes this year.
During a press briefing in Mumbai this afternoon on expansion plans for India, Kathleen Tan, Regional Head of Commercial, AirAsia said, “India is one of the most diverse and potential markets for AirAsia. Currently operating on four Indian routes through AirAsia, we record over 80 per cent load factor which is quite good. With rising demand in the market, we are expanding our operations and connections in India and expect similar load factors on new routes.” On the current Indian routes serviced by AirAsia, the carrier uses A320 aircraft while on long routes (Mumbai, Delhi, Amritsar) to be served by AirAsiaX, the carrier will deploy A330 aircraft.
According to the figures provided by the airline, India ranks sixth with regards to the number of tickets booked online with a share of 1.47 per cent of the total global online sales of the airline.
The airline is looking at promoting itself as pure Low Cost Carrier for Asian destinations..
09/03/10 Anita Jain/TravelBizMonitor

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Categories: Foreign Mar 2010, Low Cost General Mar 2010