Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 06): Long-haul low-cost carrier AirAsia X Bhd (AAX) is expecting to carry up to 143,000 passengers next year, after launching its direct flight from Kuala Lumpur to Jaipur, India — the capital city of Rajasthan — with four times weekly flights effective Feb 5, 2018.

This came after a successful launch of the Bangkok-Jaipur route in September this year, operated by its short-haul affiliate AirAsia Thailand.

AAX chief executive officer (CEO) Benyamin Ismail said with the fantastic attractions all around the city and heritage of Jaipur, it would have a positive response from tourists.

“We are confident that the beauty and heritage of Jaipur is going to have a positive response, with an average load factor of about 80% in the first year from February to December 2018.

“We are expecting to carry between 132,000 and 143,000 passengers between February and December next year for this route, with a frequency of four times a week,” he told media at the opening speech here today. 

Benyamin hopes to a build stronger ties between people in India and Malaysia with its newly-launched route to Jaipur in terms of social, culture and economy for both countries. 

“India is a very important market to us. We are proud to announce Jaipur as our (AAX) second route in India, after New Delhi,” he said.

Meanwhile, AAX group CEO Datuk Kamarudin Meranun said AAX is the first low cost carrier to offer seamless connectivity between Jaipur in India and the regional destinations, through this unique route.

“We will continue to expand our services to key Indian cities including the second and third tier cities especially those that lack good connectivity.

“We hope it will provide better connectivity for business and leisure travellers to travel to Southeast Asian destinations,” he said.

Benyamin added this new route will offer travel convenience and an affordable option for their guests.

“Before this, guests would have to first fly from Kuala Lumpur to Delhi for five hours and 30 minutes, or to Mumbai for five hours, before taking a domestic flight.

“Spending quite a bit for another hour from Delhi or two and a half hours from Mumbai to reach Jaipur,” he said. 

He said with this new route, passengers can cut short travel time and fly direct from Kuala Lumpur to Jaipur in only five hours and 30 minutes. 

Apart from this newly-launched route, the airline also flies direct to New Delhi from Kuala Lumpur. The service, which started in Feb 2016, has registered a healthy average load factor of 88%.

Meanwhile, Indian high commissioner to Malaysia Shri T.S. Tirumurti commended AirAsia for its efforts to provide enhanced links between India and Malaysia, and opening a route to the state of Rajasthan, which is a tourists’ paradise.

“We are confident that these links will benefit the tourists of both countries and open up potential in the field of tourism and business,” Tirumurti said.

AAX's promotional all-in fares which range from as low as RM229 for an economy seat and RM699 one way for a premium flatbed seat, are open for booking on airasia.com for a travel period of between Feb 5 to Nov 21, 2018.

At at midday break today, AAX was up 1.32% or one sen to 39 sen, with 5.47 million shares traded, for a market capitalisation of RM1.6 billion.

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