AirAsia X Increases Australian Services

AirAsia X has ramped up its services to offer 54 flights and over 20,000 seats per week out of its five Australian ports to Kuala Lumpur.

The airline today begins flying twice daily between its Malaysian hub and Sydney and Perth; and boosts its service between Adelaide and Kuala Lumpur from four weekly flights to five.

The airline began double daily services from Melbourne on 1 October 2013.

AirAsia X had previously operated 12 weekly flights in Sydney and Melbourne; and 9 weekly flights in Perth.

The airline today also commences its increased scheduled services to seven weekly flights on the Gold Coast, rising from five flights a week.

AirAsia X’s rise in capacity across its five Australian ports follows the finalisation of a revised bilateral agreement between the Australian and Malaysian governments, and an expansion of AirAsia X’s long-haul fleet of Airbus A330-300s which will comprise 17 aircraft at the end of December 2013.

“Since launching on the Gold Coast in 2007, AirAsia X has changed the aviation landscape in Australia,” AirAsia X CEO Azran Osman-Rani said. “We’ve shaken up the old legacy carriers, stimulated extra passenger movement between Asia and Australia with competitors increasing capacity and launching new services, and helped make overseas travel more affordable. We are very excited to be expanding capacity across each of our Australian ports which will help meet increasing demand for our services. AirAsia X now operates 54 flights per week in and out of Australia, amounting to 20,358 seats per week - more than Cathay Pacific, Thai Airways and many other full service carriers in Asia and the Gulf.”

By the end of 2013 AirAsia X is expected to become Australia’s fourth largest foreign carrier.

Mr Osman-Rani said Australia was AirAsia X’s most significant international market.

“Overall, the airline has carried over 3.4 million passengers to and from its Australian routes since it began operations in Australia in 2007,” he said. “Australia contributes over 40% of the airline’s total revenue with an average of 83% passenger load in the first half of 2013. Our services between Kuala Lumpur and each Australian port have performed extremely well. Along with the additional frequencies, AirAsia X is also looking at doubling our Fly-Thru arrivals into Australia and from Australia across our group network. We are very focussed on connecting Australia with Asia. Our next phase is to introduce flights from new Southeast Asian hubs we plan to open beyond Malaysia in the coming years.”

AirAsia Indonesia also operates direct Bali flights from Perth and Darwin.