New Delhi, Aug 5 (IANS) Malysian low-cost carrier AirAsia X launched its daily flights from Kaula Lumpur to the Indian capital Thursday and made a special offer of one-way tickets at Rs.1 (excluding taxes) which can be booked between Aug 7 and 8.
The special offer tickets will be valid on flights from Aug 10 to 30.
The first flight of the carrier from Kaula Lumpur Wednesday arrived here with 300 passengers on board and docked at the new Terminal-3 of the IGI airport.
Delhi Chief Minister Shila Dikshit and other dignitaries from the two countries were present at an event to mark the launch of the air service.
‘This will increase more people to people contact, trade commerce and cultural exchange between the two countries. I hope a lot of Indians will fly to Malaysia and discover that beautiful country,’ said Dikshit.
New Delhi is the budget airline’s ninth destination in the country. It operates to Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Trivandrum, Kochi and Tiruchirapalli.
‘We are really excited about the completion of our flights in India. The launch of these services to New Delhi also signifies our readiness to handle huge demand in the Indian market,’ said Tony Fernandes, group CEO of AirAsia and founder of AirAsia X, in a statement.
The budget carrier which has grown from two aircraft in 2002 to 96 in the past eight years plans to fly to other Indian cities.
‘May be Ahemdabad or Jaipur but right now we are focusing on consolidating our position in this sector, I guess it will take around one year for us to have an substantial impact on the market,’ Azran Osman-Rani, chief executive, AirAsia X, told IANS.
The carrier will be flying in its new Airbus A330’s to the capital which have 12 flatbed seats in the business class and 365 in the economy class.
The company sees a tremendous growth in traffic volumes.
‘We grew the traffic volumes by 41 percent in Melbourne, 66 percent in Perth and 38 percent in London. Here as well we plan to do the same, and there is nothing like a good competition,’ Azran said.
