Airline News
Malaysia AirAsia concentrates on secondary hubs for growth
September 25th 2015
Malaysia AirAsia (MAA) is preparing to establish a secondary hub in Langkawi, after a landmark deal which has resulted in a 70% reduction in charges, initially to launch new services to Guangzhou and Hong Kong, with other destinations to follow. The plan will see at least five A320s based in Langkawi by 2020. Langkawi has a 3,810 metre long runway. Its only regular international services are to Singapore on SilkAir and Tigerair. Read More »
Speaking at the CAPA LCC Airports Congress in Bangkok last week, AirAsia Group boss, Tony Fernandes, said the new Langkawi hub was part of an overall growth strategy at secondary airports. At the group’s original Malaysian subsidiary, several new domestic and international routes from secondary hubs are planned for the next year, despite a significant slowdown in fleet growth.
Fernandes said AirAsia aimed to launch services in the coming years from Langkawi to Bangkok and five other international destinations, routes that would not have been viable without the reduction in charges. AirAsia has been fighting for lower airport charges at Langkawi for several years, believing the resort island had huge potential and with lower airport charges could narrow the gap with the nearby Thai island of Phuket. “By reducing the charges we invest, we’re able to stimulate new routes and an airport that was really earning no income is going to earn a tremendous amount of income,” Fernandes said.
MAA needs to squeeze more out of its existing fleet as it is keen to continue growing capacity at a rate of about 7% to 10% per year, without increasing its current fleet, made up of 173 A320s, through to year end-2016. In addition to bringing in several new routes from its secondary hubs, MAA has launched thrice-weekly Kuala Lumpur-Visakhapatnam rotations in May, followed by thrice-weekly Kuala Lumpur-Goa flights in August. The carrier said it planned to develop another Indian destination before year-end.
MAA is starting to benefit from capacity cuts at Malaysia Airline Berhad (MAB), after MAB suspended services to four MAA destinations – Kochi, Krabi, Kunming and Male.
Lion Group’s Malaysian low-cost subsidiary, Malindo Air, is looking towards India for growth. Malindo will add a thrice-weekly Kuala Lumpur-Amritsar B737-900ER service from October 25, joining Visakhapatnam, Trivandrum, Chittagong and Dhaka as destinations on the sub-continent. Malindo has said it was targeting a fleet of 100 aircraft by 2022. It operates 13 B737NGs out of Kuala Lumpur International airport as well as 11 ATR72-600s from Subang Airport.
At Air China, the airline will resume its Beijing-Kuala Lumpur route with four-weekly flights on October 25 after it was suspended three years ago. The airline may increase the flight frequency to seven a week flights or even two-daily flights if air travel demand continues to rise," Malaysian Tourism Promotion Board chairman, Wee Choo Keong, told Bernama after attending a meeting between Tourism Malaysia, Air China and local travel agent, China Comfort Travel.
