Malaysian airline to expand Australian operations

15/05/2008 22:21:17

The budget Malaysian long-haul airline AirAsia X says it will expand its Australian operations, as a fare battle with other carriers heated up.

AirAsia X, a sister company of budget-carrier Air Asia, will offer six return flights per week between Perth and Kuala Lumpur from November 2, the airline said in a statement.

Perth will be the airline's second destination in Australia after its four-weekly return flight to the Gold Coast which began in November last year.

"Looking at what we've done with these two routes, we are confident of creating a bigger market in Western Australia," AirAsia's group chief executive Tony Fernandes said.

The airline says it also plans to start flying to Britain later this year, and is considering more destinations in China.

Free flights battle
Last week AirAsia said it would give away free domestic flights, but that's now been countered by national carrier Malaysian Airlines (MA), which has offered to give away flights to 20 regional destinations.

Mr Fernandes has criticised MAS for copying the budget airline's low fares policy, and says it could spell AirAsia's demise.

"The government will never allow MAS to fail but a private company? Who is going to save us?" Mr Fernandes told the New Straits Times.

"I'm not against competition but it has to be a level playing field. You can't send me into a boxing match with one hand tied behind my back," he said, referring to a subsidy MAS receives from the government for some of its international flights.

AirAsia also wants to be given equal rights to fly the lucrative Singapore-Kuala Lumpur air route.

MAS currently runs 69 flights a week between the two neighbours, while AirAsia is only allowed to offer 14 weekly flights.

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