News
AirAsia Group optimistic about strong air travel recovery
September 24th 2021
AirAsia Group is confident of a strong recovery in air travel after recording “overwhelming demand” for recently reopened destinations in Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. Read More » The low-cost airline group is geared up to fully restore its domestic and international services after the Malaysian government’s announcement that tourism would reopen when the nation’s adult vaccination rate reached 90%. It had been encouraged by the success of the Langkawi travel bubble since it opened on September 16, the group said, and expressed confidence in a strong demand recovery to all key domestic destinations. There had been overwhelming demand for flights to Langkawi and other recently re-opened domestic leisure destinations such as Boracay, Cebu and Bohol in the Philippines as well as Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Hat Yai in Thailand, it said. Load factors on these leisure destinations had been in a healthy range of 80%-90% with more frequencies and routes to be added in line with strong forward bookings. “The demand is already there,’’ AirAsia Group airlines president, Bo Lingam, said. “People can’t wait to reunite with friends and family or take off to their favourite leisure destinations. We are well prepared to paint the skies red across Asean as soon as the time is right. For Langkawi alone, AirAsia Malaysia has sold more than 260,000 seats in just over a week, which is a strong testament to the level of pent-up demand for domestic travel.” Malaysia Airports chief executive, Mohd Shukrie Mohd Salleh, echoed AirAsia’s optimism. “We are seeing light at the end of the tunnel especially with the reopening of domestic tourism,’’ he said. “With Langkawi as the pioneer destination of the domestic travel bubble, we are certainly looking forward to our airport operations being in full swing again.”
