AirAsia pushes new regional schedules, secondary hub growth

Malaysia-based low cost carrier AirAsia Berhad plans to launch its latest direct flight between tier-two Chinese city Guangzhou and Langkawi, Malaysia at the end of January 2016.

The choice of tourist destination Langkawi for the group’s latest international route underlines the company’s strategy to develop services on less heavily serviced routes. The schedule will see 4X-weekly Airbus A320 departures.

AirAsia CEO Aireen Omar said the airline is focused on expanding its connectivity into China, especially second-tier cities such as the recently launched Changsha-Kuala Lumpur service.

This secondary city approach is echoed by the AirAsia Group’s introduction of flights from Changsha-Bangkok operated by Thai AirAsia; a Krabi (Malaysia)-Guangzhou (China) service by AirAsia; and a Wuhan (China)-Kota Kinabalu (Malaysia) service, also by AirAsia.

Additionally, the Thai subsidiary has introduced new international schedules from its newest regional hub at Thailand’s U-Tapao International Airport to Macau, Singapore, and is reportedly looking at new routes to India.

“We will continue to add more aircraft orders as we go further because we are not only growing in Malaysia, but also in Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, India and hopefully in Japan,” Omar said.

AirAsia is scheduled to take delivery of its first Airbus A320 neo aircraft from the 2016 second half, which Omar said will be used to expand existing regional business as well as act as fleet replacements.