Airasia to fly to China?

[onebir]

This may not be separate from the AirAsia X plans for flying SEAsia-Tianjin/Hangzhou mentioned here (although technically it probably should be because AirAsia X is going to be a separate company)

...but on the AirAsia

investor relations page it says this:

"Q: Are you going to add more routes?

A: We constantly look for opportunities and ways to expand our network. Assuming plane delivery is in schedule and our on-going discussions with multiple Government agencies yield favourable results, we aim to introduce at least 15 routes in financial year 2007. Most of these routes will be cross-connecting our existing destinations and hence improve the network spread. We are also in late stages of negotiations to fly to China and Indo-China."

Given that they have 50 odd planes now, have firm orders for 150 Airbus A320s and options on another 30, I guess they do need to open a lot of new routes.

Airbus A320s have a range of 4900-5700km (depending on the exact model. That's enough for: Bangkok-Beijing (3300km) & Kuala Lumpur-Beijing (4400km), subject to AirAsia getting rights to use the airport. This is probably why earlier reports mention Tianjin (2 hours train journey from Beijing) and Hangzhou (4 hours? from Shanghai).

[Koneko]

Oh yes, I was hoping Fly Asian Xpress (FAX) could consider London<--->Singapore route soon!

They are going to have their maiden long-haul flights this July.

But then again, I am quite happy with Singapore Airlines.

You pay a little bit more for better services.

一分钱, 一分货

[onebir]

Some destinations have been named:

Kunming, Chengdu, Chongqing and Shenzhen

The story says services should start in Q3 and that the plans include these cities, implying more to come - not rocket science given the 3 fold fleet expansion they're planning...

From PCquote