KUALA LUMPUR (March 22): Capital A Bhd’s aviation arm AirAsia Aviation Group Ltd said it welcomes the Malaysian government’s announcement to fully open international borders on April 1, saying it will provide support to additional capacity in many of its international markets in line with significant pent-up demand.

In a statement on Tuesday (March 22), AirAsia said since it had resumed its operations with travel bubbles and a focus on domestic services, the gradual resumption of international flying is already well underway in tandem with borders gradually reopening around the world.

“With the continued easing of travel restrictions, the airline group has increased its domestic flight capacity by 156% since October 2021 that kickstarted with the Langkawi travel bubble, and by 50% for international flights since the Malaysian government's announcement of borders reopening in April, on March 8, 2022, with a total of 75 aircraft in operation currently group-wide,” the statement read.

AirAsia highlighted that the resumption in operations was also supported by the reopening of other countries in Southeast Asia such as Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Singapore, and Vietnam.

Lingam: We will continue to review our network, which evolves based on a number of factors including demand. (Photo by Mohd Suhaimi Mohamed Yusuf/The Edge)

“We’re thrilled to be resuming more flights in all of our core markets in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia and to be adding additional services to some of AirAsia’s most popular international destinations including Bali, Manila, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Phuket and more, starting in April," said AirAsia’s group chief executive officer (CEO) Bo Lingam.

“Domestic flying also continues to soar across the group. We have recently launched four new domestic routes in Malaysia from Kuching to Langkawi, Penang to Sibu, Johor Baru to Bintulu and Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Terengganu this year," he noted.

“We will continue to review our network, which evolves based on a number of factors including demand. New services will be announced in due course as the world continues to gradually reopen," he said, adding that the group expects demand to push capacity growth to 100% or more of pre-Covid-19 levels by year-end.

Meanwhile, AirAsia Malaysia’s CEO Riad Asmat said AirAsia Malaysia plans to relaunch many new routes from its main hub at klia2.

Riad said AirAsia Malaysia plans to relaunch many new routes from its main hub at klia2. (Photo by Mohd Suhaimi Mohamed Yusuf/The Edge)

AirAsia said it is committed to providing service under stringent health and safety measures, with 95% of its guests migrating to contactless self-check-in via the airasia app and its website.

AirAsia’s counter check-in service will be strictly for exempted categories of guests — which include senior citizens aged 70 and above, people with disabilities registered with the Welfare Department, young passengers travelling alone, group bookings of 10 guests and more, charter flight passengers and more — at all airports in Malaysia from April 1.

The low-cost carrier also said it will be offering flights to popular destinations including Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, India, Thailand, Indonesia, the Maldives, Brunei, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Laos, Bangladesh and more from as low as just RM89 one-way, while domestic routes are on sale from just RM39 one-way, from now until March 27, 2022 for travel between April 1, 2022 until March 25, 2023 on the ‘Flights’ option in the airasia app.

At the time of writing, Capital A shares were trading half a sen or 0.81% higher at 62 sen, valuing it at RM2.58 billion.

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AirAsia expects full capacity recovery by 1Q 2023

Source: TheEdge - 23 Mar 2022