An airline spokesman yesterday said the Malaysian operator was talking with Cairns airport
officials.

“AirAsia is in discussion with Cairns airport authorities on the possibility of launching several routes,” he said.

“Cairns-Bali is among those on the list. But nothing has been firmed up and the talks are merely in the exploratory stage.”

Airport chief executive Stephen Gregg was tight-lipped yesterday.

He said the airport was always open to opportunities with new airlines to add capacity for Cairns.

“But at this stage there is no news on AirAsia coming here,” Mr Gregg said.

Advance Cairns chairman Russell Beer said at the launch of Alliance Airlines services earlier this week AirAsia was talked about.

He said he understood the discussions were preliminary and any additional flights, especially from overseas, were welcome.

Mr Beer said as part of the New Deal relief, recovery and reform package for Cairns he was driving any increased airline capacity.

Tourism Tropical North Queensland chief executive officer Rob Giason said senior executives from the airline had visited Cairns in the past and there had been talks about possible opportunities.

“I have no knowledge of any route developments at this stage,” he said.

AirAsia is based in Malaysia with hubs also in Indonesia and Thailand. It operates from major airport in Kuala Lumpur.

It has a network of 130 routes covering 70 destinations, employs about 7000 staff and carried about 25 million passengers last year.

Its offshoot, AirAsia X, flies to Melbourne, Perth and the Gold Coast from Kuala Lumpur and also flies to Bali from Perth.

It hopes to start services to Sydney by mid-year. There are plans to fly to Darwin and Adelaide.

It is not clear how its operational alliance with Jetstar will affect its Cairns plans. Jetstar flies to Bali and Singapore via Darwin.

The alliance is tipped to save the airlines about $300 million annually, as a springboard to a wider partnership that includes revenue and code sharing.

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The budget carrier’s other new routes are to Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai. All flights will take off from the Low-Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT).

AirAsia will also commence flights to Chennai from Penang beginning April 28. Flights from LCCT to Chennai will commence on May 17 (daily); Bangalore on May 20 (daily); Hyderabad on July 20 (daily); Mumbai on May 6 (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday); and New Delhi on Aug 4 (daily).

The airline already flies to Trichy, Kochi, Trivandrum and Kolkata. Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat said the new routes would further open up the Malaysian business and tourism market to India.

Low fares: Ong, accompanied by Fernandes, launching the new routes to India at Rootz in Lot 10, Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

“This tie with India will become increasingly more important, having enjoyed a long relationship with India and subsequent to the visit of our Prime Minister to India last week, it will gear us to further improve our political, trade and economic cooperation with India.

“I hope the increased accessibility into India coupled with low fares will stimulate the interest of SMEs in India and Malaysia to further invest and expand their business beyond their native shores, which will result in the growth of trade between Malaysia and India,” he said at a ceremony to mark the official announcement here.

Also present were AirAsia group CEO Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes, Malaysian Associated Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry vice-president Datuk Ramesh Kodammal and Tourism Malaysia deputy director-general Azizan Noordin.

Ong said India was Malaysia’s 12th largest global trading partner last year and Malaysia was India’s second-largest trading partner in the Association of South-East Asian Nations.

Besides business and economic ties with India, Ong said tourists from India offered significant potential to Malaysia.

“In the year 2009, the total number of tourists from India to Malaysia numbered 589,838,” he added.

The minister also said response to AirAsia’s destinations in India had been very encouraging, with the airline carrying 237,367 passengers to the four cities it currently flew to.

Fernandes said AirAsia’s additional flights to India was “a timely effort in response to the Prime Minister’s call to strengthen Malaysia-India bilateral relations.”

To mark the opening of sales for the new routes, AirAsia is offering fares as low as RM199 for the booking period from Wednes-day to Sunday.

AirAsia, one of the largest low-cost carrier in Asia, said it has launched Kochi-Kuala Lumpur flights in line with its plans to boost India operations.

Air Asia, which services the most extensive route network in South East Asia with over 70 destinations, said it was the only airline from Kuala Lumpur to start direct daily flights to Kochi.

Kochi is one of the airline’s latest Indian destinations which opened for sale recently, alongside Kolkata and Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum).

Since opening of these routes less than two months ago, the airline experienced an overwhelming response with nearly 100,000 seats being sold on the sector, it added.

The flight was welcomed by Consul General of Malaysia for Southern India based in Chennai, Anuar Kasman, Noor Arif Mohd. Noor, director of Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board in Chennai, Manoharan, director of Tourism Malaysia – Southern Asia accompanied by AirAsia regional head of Commercial, Kathleen Tan.

“With Kochi now added to our extensive network, AirAsia is unlocking the potential of international air travel from Kuala Lumpur to Southern India and its surrounding areas,” said Tan.

“We are thrilled to be serving Kochi direct, a huge market that no other airline is serving directly. With the commencement of this direct service to Kuala Lumpur, the people of Kerala and India can now use Kochi as a gateway to our extensive route network to Asean and beyond,” she added.-TradeArabia News Service

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