AirAsia X hikes Australian capacity

The ramping up of services out of its five Australian ports will help grow trade and tourism between Asia and Australia, according to low cost carrier AirAsia X.

The low cost carrier has increased its Australian services to 54 per week, totalling more than 20,000 weekly seats. By the end of the year, it is expected to be Australia’s fourth largest foreign carrier.

The capacity hike follows the finalisation of a revised bilateral agreement between the governments of Australia and Malaysia. AirAsia X has also expanded its long-haul fleet of Airbus A330-300s which will number 17 aircraft by the end of this year.

Chief executive Azran Osman-Rani said that the airline is responsible for changing the aviation landscape in Australia since it first launched services to the Gold Coast in 2007.

“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,” he said.

“The increased services will provide guests with a greater choice of travel times and enable us to offer improved flight connections across our network and that of the AirAsia Group, which will also further encourage the growth of tourism and trade between Australia and Asia.”

The next phase in the airline’s strategy for Australia, its most significant international market, is to introduce flights from new Southeast Asian hubs outside Malaysia that it plans to open in the coming years, he revealed.

Yesterday, the airline commenced twice daily flights from Kuala Lumpur to both Sydney and Perth, and upped the frequency of its Adelaide-Kuala Lumpur service from four times weekly to five. It also increased services to the Gold Coast from five per week to seven.

It began double daily services from Melbourne on October 1.