The Malaysia-based low-cost long-haul carrier has stated its intention to resume services between Kuala Lumpur and London later this year, after a decade away. Let’s look a little deeper into the airline’s latest announcement.
In what the airline is calling “a new era for low-cost, long-haul travel”, AirAsia X (IATA D7 / ICAO XAX) has announced that it will resume flying from Kuala Lumpur to London later this year.
Along with other new services to Dubai and Instanbul, the decision to resume flying between the capital cities of Malaysia and the UK comes as the airline gears up following several years of stagnation and a suspension of flights. The announcement comes hot on the heels of the airline celebrating the launch of four other new routes to Japan and Hawaii, which are all on sale from today.
AirAsia X now offers flights across seven routes from Kuala Lumpur to New Delhi, Sydney, Seoul (Incheon), Tokyo (Haneda), Sapporo (Chitose), Osaka (Kansai), and from Osaka (Kansai) to Honolulu. All flights are operated by the carrier’s fleet of 13 Airbus A330-300s, which offer both economy and premium class cabins.
Although the exact start date and timings are yet to be revealed for the newly-announced London services, they are expected to be in late 2022. The airline previously served London up until 2012, serving London Stansted Airport. The airline has not disclosed its preference for which London airport it will serve at this stage for the new services.
The additional flights to London, Dubai, and Istanbul will bring the total number of destinations served by the carrier into double figures for the first time. It is also widely expected that the airline will announce new services from Malaysia to both Perth and Melbourne in Australia in the near future.
Commenting on the latest announcement regarding the new services, the CEO of AirAsia X, Benjamin Ismail, said,
“We are back, better and stronger than ever. We have spent the downtime in flying reviewing every aspect of the operation to deliver even greater value and choice for medium and long-haul travel. Now that international borders are reopening across the world, we are able to resume operations to our most popular destinations, including Australia, Japan, Hawaii, India, and South Korea first.
Today’s announcement of the resumption of four routes to Japan and Hawaii and to launch flights to London, Istanbul, and Dubai is just the beginning. We have many more destinations in the pipeline, which we will announce soon, to meet strong pent-up demand.”
With the backing of principal investor Capital A behind it, AirAsia X appears to have an exciting few years ahead after a two-year hiatus. There are also plans to expand further. The airline also has an outstanding order with Airbus for 15 A330-900 Neo aircraft, which will provide the airline with additional payload and range capabilities going forward.
Speaking about the rebirth of the carrier and its future aspirations, Capital A President (Commercial) Colin Currie said,
“Today’s announcement marks a new era for our long-haul affiliate AirAsia X which is resuming operations after a two-year hiatus, with refreshed branding to signal a fresh new start. The relaunched AirAsia X stands for maximum value, maximum experience, and maximum destinations.
However, the ethos of AirAsia – delivering low-cost, high quality will continue to underpin the new-look AirAsia X, providing maximum opportunity for everyone to go to their dream destinations. Capital A will support AirAsia X moving forward as a conduit to leverage synergies within our broad ecosystem of travel and lifestyle products.
e will use our full resources, including the AirAsia Super App, our cargo business Teleport, fintech arm BigPay, and all of the other airlines in the AirAsia Aviation Group to take AirAsia to new heights.”
The last couple of years have been tough for AirAsia X and its investors. Its fleet was effectively mothballed while its finances were reorganized and the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the globe.
However, the airline is bullish about its future and product offerings with new investment, new branding, and a clear desire to return to its former heydays as a low-cost, long-haul pioneer.
Speaking of the optimism he holds for the airline from this point, Benjamin Ismail added,
“The return to London and first-time flights direct to Dubai and Istanbul will be a gamechanger for great value long-haul travel, and these will be on sale soon for travel later this year. As our services grow, we will continue to bring our fleet of aircraft out of hibernation, and we can look forward to gradually bringing our valued pilots and cabin crew who were on furlough back.
I am confident that our resumed or new services will prove very popular and that we will return to pre-Covid capacity on some of our core routes within the next 12 months. Our strategic new model, combining cargo and passengers, enables AirAsia X to fly profitably where other airlines may not be able to, which makes operations to longer-haul routes like Dubai, Istanbul, and London commercially viable and more affordable for our guests at the same time.”
As demand for low-cost, long-haul travel appears to be on the rise, it will be good to see a former trailblazer of the model return to form. AirAsia X and others such as Norse Atlantic and Scoot will be working hard to carve out niches as a new age of travel emerges post-pandemic.