AirAsia X, AirAsia Group’s long-haul, low-cost affiliate carrier, is ready to return to Europe this summer when it adds London (England) and Frankfurt (Germany) to its destinations.
The news was confirmed by AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes himself when he was at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week.
He said that he has plans to launch 2 new routes – London and Frankfurt. The London flights will depart from klia2 but the Frankfurt route will be direct flights out of Bangkok instead.
AirAsia X launched flights to London and Paris back in March 2009 but the routes were suspended in March 2012 due to high operating costs. Ever since then, there has been talks of AirAsia X rebooting the London route and adding “a new Europe destination“.
In speaking about the price, Tony said that he was looking at setting the airfare below €200 (RM953) for the Bangkok – Frankfurt route. German news agency DPA quoted him as saying, “Honestly, I would like to offer them for even less. Due to the low oil prices, we could even afford to set the airfare as low as €150 (RM715).”
“We are keen on attracting more Europeans to come to holiday in Southeast Asia as well as to help Asians who wish to explore Europe. We see this as a mutual market,” he added.
In other related news, AirAsia X has received the green light from the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) to fly commercial flights to the United States (US). As of now, no routes have been confirmed, but the airline is considering flying to “several US states, including Hawaii” as part of its trans-Pacific expansion strategy.
Note: Back in April 2015, the airline let slip that they were planning 4 weekly flights between Kuala Lumpur and Honolulu with a refuelling stop in Osaka.
It all goes according to plan, it would mark AirAsia X’s first American route. Okay now, who’s excited? 😀
UPDATE (3rd February):
The American dream is closer than we think!
According to Places and Foods, citing insider sources, AirAsia X is scheduled to start flying to Hawaii in June 2017. However, despite having previously mentioned that the route includes a refuelling stop in Osaka, there has been confirmation of which airport in Japan they will stop over in.
But we’ll find out soon enough as bookings for AirAsia X’s Hawaii route is expected to start on 10th February 2017 (Friday). Fingers crossed that the promotional prices upon the launch are cheap!
Hawaii (and the rest of the US), we are ready for our great escape 🙂
Sources: FMT, Travel Daily, Places and Foods, CNA / Featured image: SDAsia.
