Air Asia to connect 4 more cities with Kuala Lumpur

Low-cost carrierAir Asia today said it will connect four more Indian cities with its hub in Kuala Lumpur to take the number of destinations linked to the Malaysian capital to 12.

Its Executive Director and CEO Aireen Omar announced here that four more Indian cities will be connected with the Malaysian capital.

She, however, did not specify the cities which will be connected or offer details on the timelines by when the new flights will start.

The airline, which entered the country in 2008, had launched a Visakhapatnam-Kuala Lumpur service in May, which was followed up by a flight to Goa from the Malaysian capital.

Other Indian cities it connects with Kuala Lumpur include Tiruchirappalli, Kochi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

Omar today said it is also increasing the frequency of the Kochi-Kuala Lumpur route to 14 per week, from the present 10 per week, starting November 19.

The airliner has chosen Bengaluru as its operating hub in the country.

“India is an important market to us, and together with AirAsia India, we are committed towards providing the Indian consumers with low fares and high-value services. We entered the Indian market with Tiruchirappalli as AirAsia Berhad’s first destination back in 2008, and today, we serve eight cities to Kuala Lumpur and beyond,” she said.

She said factors like exhaustion of traffic rights sometimes hampers its plans and added that the airline has already sought to increase bilateral rights so that AirAsia Berhad can expand frequencies on existing routes.

The average flight load of the Visakhapatnam-Kuala Lumpur route since its launch in May has been 78 per cent, she added.