KUALA LUMPUR (April 11): Budget carrier AirAsia Bhd is offering a 50% discount to passengers that were affected by the suspension of Rayani Air Sdn Bhd’s operation.

In a statement today, AirAsia said the discount is applicable to all Rayani air passengers who hold a confirmed flight booking to and from Kuala Lumpur, Langkawi, Kota Baru, Kuching, and Kota Kinabalu, from today until April 27.

AirAsia said these passengers can present their flight tickets at any of AirAsia Travel & Service Centres at klia2 in Sepang, Langkawi International Airport, Sultan Ismail Petra Airport (Kota Bharu), Kuching International Airport, and Kota Kinabalu International Airport.

“We empathise with all the affected Rayani Air passengers and we hope that this 50% discount will help ease them in making new travel arrangements, especially with the extensive flight frequencies that we have, servicing all affected destinations,” AirAsia head of commercial Spencer Lee said.

AirAsia operates 11 times daily flights from Kuala Lumpur to Langkawi, eight times daily flights from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Bharu, 11 times daily flights from Kuala Lumpur to Kuching, eight times daily flights from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu, and three times daily flights from Kota Kinabalu to Kuching.

The Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia today announced that it has issued a three-month provisional suspension to Rayani Air, a syariah-compliant airline, with a scheduled inquiry on May 2.

Last Friday (April 8), Rayani Air halted its operation, after a pilot strike had reportedly resulted in at least three flight cancellations.

Just last month, Rayani Air was also investigated by the Transport Ministry, after issuing handwritten boarding passes to passengers.

AirAsia closed one sen or 0.53% higher at RM1.90 today, giving it a market capitalisation of RM5.29 billion.