East Asian Low Cost Flights
Visit Malaysia Year, 2007 with new cheap air flights.
Budget carriers fly from/to Malaysia and Vietnam as Asia fights for tourists. Air AsiaX launches in July and is expected to become a major player in the Asia field.
Malaysia is set to launch Visit Malaysia Year 2007 Campaign held in conjunction with the 50th Anniversary of Malaysia’s independence from Britain. To help it along it is proposed that more Asian low-cost airlines, including Singapore’s Tiger Airways and Bangkok Airways may be allowed to fly into the country. Cheap air flights could well be crucial to the success of the campaign, especially as the recent, and ongoing floods in the south of the country have destroyed a lot of the infrastructure and disrupted road and rail services.
Sixty per cent of all Malaysia’s tourists come from Singapore, and Tiger Airways of Singapore are said to be interested in flying from the city-state to tourist destinations on the east coast of Malaysia and also to the states of Sabah and Sarawak on Borneo. They are not expected to be permitted to fly the lucrative route to Kuala Lumpur, a preserve of Malaysia Airlines and Singapore Airlines.
The Government is hoping for more tourists from The Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia and to encourage more chartered flights from Europe. The Philippines low-cost carrier, Cebu Pacific, already flies to Kuala Lumpur and in early January, Thai Air Asia willinaugurate flights from Bangkok to Langkawi, one of Malaysia’s most popular resort islands.
Vietnam's first budget flights with Pacific Airlines commences operations in February, when the carrier, currently a full-cost operation, becomes a low-cost company for domestic and international flights. Initial flights will be between Hanoi, Danang and Ho Chi Minh City plus Taipei and Kaohsiung in Taiwan.
On January 5th, Malaysia aviation tycoon Tony Fernandes launched a new long-haul budget airline, AirAsia X, which is due to start flying to China and England in July 2007 and subsequently to India, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. Online ticket sales from next month for the initial services to Tianjin and Hangzhou in China and either Manchester or Stanstead, London.
AirAsiaXwill use the Air Asia brand website for bookings but will cover destinations which are more than four hours flying time from Kuala Lumpur. Tony Fernandes expects Air Asia to be the world’s biggest airline within the next seven years.
