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Tag: travelling

  • AirAsia keeps improving flight services

    AirAsia keeps improving flight services

    AirAsia won for the 11th time at the prestigious Skytrax World Airline Awards as the world’s best low-cost airline during the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget, Paris, France, in the middle of June 2019. But despite the awards, it has never let itself get complacent.

    The airline keeps its commitment to continue increasing and improving its flight services for domestic routes and foreign routes, by being continually committed to providing low cost but quality flight services on all of the routes it serves.

    In July 2019, the airline launched three new routes from Jakarta to Sorong in West Papua, Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara and Semarang in Central Java. The new routes will start operating on Sept. 1 and will be served by Airbus A320 aircraft with a capacity of 180 seats. In June, AirAsia launched five new domestic routes. The five round-trip domestic routes are Jakarta-Lombok (11 flights per week), Bali-Lombok (seven flights per week), Yogyakarta Kulonprogo-Lombok (three flights per week), Bali-Labuan Bajo (seven flights per week) and Surabaya-Kertajati (three flights per week). AirAsia will start operating its flight services on the five new domestic routes from Aug. 1 onwards.

    In an effort to attract more passengers to the new routes, AirAsia is offering special prices, namely for Jakarta–Lombok starting from Rp 635,000, Bali–Lombok from Rp 243,000, Surabaya–Kertajati from Rp 626,000. All the prices are one-way but include tax and free baggage up to 15 kg.

    The flight tickets, which are offered at a price of Rp 2.49 million for Jakarta-Sorong, Rp 590,000 for Jakarta-Lombok and Rp 341,000 for Jakarta-Semarang, can be ordered at airasia.com and through the AirAsia application. The prices are only for one-way but include passenger service charge and free baggage up to a maximum of 15 kg. The prices are only available on flights booked until July 28, for flights from Sept. 1 until Oct. 26.

    Sorong is the largest city in West Papua and stands as a gateway to Raja Ampat, one of the most exotic and beautiful tourist destinations in Indonesia.

    In Lombok, where AirAsia has recently opened its new hub, travelers can enjoy a number of enchanting destinations, such as Bukit Merese, the Gili Islands, Tanjung A’an, Pink Beach and Mandalika.

    In Semarang, which is also known as the little Netherlands, travelers can trace its history through the old buildings mostly from the Dutch colonial era, while hunting for local delicacies along the exotic journey.

    Besides the route expansion, last month AsiaAsia also offered five million cheap tickets through its Big Sale 2019 program for various domestic and international destinations. The promotional tickets include those on favorite routes, such as Jakarta-Singapore at a price of only Rp 150,000, Medan-Penang from Rp 230,000 and Surabaya-Bali from Rp 359,000.

    The airline has also introduced a new standard of flight comfort with its Airbus A330neo, which will certainly change the public perception of long-distance flights. It will offer the best value of ticket prices for 30 long-distance destinations in 10 major markets of AirAsia Group.

    “Besides developing international connectivity to support the visit of foreign tourists to Indonesia, this year, as we promised, we are focusing on expanding our domestic routes, especially those to eastern Indonesia.,” said AirAsia’s president director Dendy Kurniawan recently during the ceremony to launch the new routes.

    Currently, AirAsia Indonesia operates a total of 292 flights per week from Jakarta to various domestic and international destinations, such as Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Bangkok, Phuket, Surabaya, Yogyakarta and Bali.

    Overall, AirAsia serves more than 700 flights per week on 38 direct routes from 15 cities of Indonesia for domestic and international routes. It has a fleet of more than 200 airplanes of the type Airbus A320-200 and Airbus A330-300 in six countries, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, India and Japan, with more than 140 international destinations in Asia, Australia, the Middle East and the US.

    “We’ll continue to be committed to providing low cost but quality flight services in Indonesia. We realize it through the principle of efficiency, innovation and operation digitalization. It is not just a marketing gimmick. It is part of our vision and mission to realize ‘Now Everyone Can Fly,” Dendy Kurniawan concluded.

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  • Lagardere travel business post strong growth driven by China

    Lagardere travel business post strong growth driven by China

    French-headquartered Lagardere says its travel retail business achieved a 15.8-per-cent increase in consolidated sales in the first half-year.

    Like-for-like sales were up 6.5 percent, the difference attributable to a €134 million positive impact resulting from the acquisition of HBF and of Smullers in the Netherlands, and to a €26 million positive foreign exchange impact.

    Earnings before interest and tax for the travel retail division rose 12 percent to €46 million.

    In the Asia-Pacific region, sales grew 6.5 percent, largely driven by organic growth in China.

    Consolidated group revenue, incorporating the company’ publishing, sports and entertainment business activities, grew by 6.7 per cent on a like-for-like basis, to €3.612 billion.

    Group recurring earnings before tax and interest came in at €153 million for first-half, up from €139 million a year earlier, owing mainly to business growth at Lagardere Travel Retail and a busy sporting calendar for Lagardere Sports and Entertainment.

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  • Thai AirAsia ready for travel growth

    Thai AirAsia ready for travel growth

    Thai AirAsia and Thai AirAsia X’s businesses are expected to grow as projected this year, with passengers surpassing 23 million.

    Santisuk Klongchaiya, chief executive of Thai AirAsia, said passengers in the first half this year tallied 11.4 million, with a load factor at 87%. Passenger volume for the full year is expected to reach 23.2 million as planned, 5% growth, with a load factor of 85-86%.

    He said the most urgent issue for the airline is to regain trust from Chinese tourists after the fatal boat accident last year. The baht appreciation has also affected the Chinese market.

    Mr Santisuk said the airline plans to talk with the Tourism Authority of Thailand about creating a special campaign for the Chinese market. Thai AirAsia is also considering opening new routes in South Asia, such as Hyderabad, India and Kathmandu, Nepal, later this year. The airline plans to welcome two more Airbus A321 jets by the end of this year to replace retired aircraft, bringing Thai AirAsia’s fleet to 63.

    Nadda Buranasiri, chief executive of AirAsia X group and Thai AirAsia X, said the fleet for Thai AirAsia X will expand from nine to 14 as part of the plan to create a network in North Asia before moving to other regions.

    Thai AirAsia X, which operates long-haul routes, carried 1.5 million passengers in the first six months.

    Passenger numbers for the full year are projected at 3 million, with a load factor of 85%.

    There are some new routes planned in North Asia or Australia, and more frequencies expected to be added, said Mr Nadda.

    The airline has put off plans to add other long-haul routes to assess market demand after adding four flights a week on the new Airbus A330neo to Brisbane, Australia.

    Thai AirAsia and Thai AirAsia X are budget airlines partially owned by Malaysia’s AirAsia Group Berhad.

    Yesterday, Teleport (formerly known as Redcargo Logistics), a fully owned subsidiary air cargo company under AirAsia Group Berhad, signed a memorandum of understanding with Triple i Logistics to set up a joint venture company, Teleport Thailand.

    The new venture will start services at the beginning of next year.

    Pete Chareonwongsak, chief executive of Teleport, said it offers seamless same-day delivery in e-commerce for both domestic and 140 other destinations in the airline’s network, covering Asia and Australia, with cargo capacity from the 270 aircraft held by AirAsia and affiliated carriers.

    “Utilisation of the airline’s belly cargo is only 15%. We plan to use the remaining capacity to benefit small business operators, aiming to utilise cargo capacity of up to 50% within five years,” he said.

    The partnership will offer a new logistics business model differing from traditional airport-to-airport cargo movement, said Tipp Dalal, chief executive of Triple i Logistics.

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  • AirAsia India announces new routes

    AirAsia India announces new routes

    AirAsia India is on an expansion spree. the budget carrier will start operating daily direct flight on the Delhi-Chandigarh route from 1 August onwards. The launch fare on Delhi-Chandigarh route is ₹1,365, the airline mentioned. The flight would leave from Delhi at 10.40 am every day and would reach Chandigarh at 11.50 am. The return flight would depart from Chandigarh every day at 12.50 pm and arrive at the Delhi airport at 1.55 pm, the low-cost carrier said.

    The airline will also be introducing fourth additional flight on the New Delhi-Bengaluru route from 5 August onwards. The airline currently runs three flights daily on the New Delhi-Bengaluru route.

    As part of expansion plans, AirAsia India is likely to launch international services by September-October with flights to destinations in South East Asia, including Malaysia and Thailand.

    Air Asia India, which started operations in June 2014, is a joint venture between Tata and AirAsia Berhad. It currently operates 164 flights a day, covering 19 destinations and carrying over 25,000 passengers.

    GoAir is also expanding its operations with five new international services to the Gulf region, two to Bangkok and eight new domestic services. GoAir’s new international services are Delhi-Abu Dhabi, Mumbai-Abu Dhabi, Mumbai-Muscat, Delhi-Bangkok, Kannur-Dubai, Mumbai-Bangkok and Kannur-Kuwait routes.

    GoAir is expanding its India operations from Hyderabad with eight new flights covering cities like Cochin, Chennai, Jaipur, Bengaluru, Chandigarh and Patna.

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  • Flight Centre could see benefits from right-sizing

    Flight Centre could see benefits from right-sizing

    Amid an industry-wide effort to right-size store networks, analysts at Citi have singled out Flight Centre as a business which could particularly benefit from such an effort.

    According to Citi analyst Bryan Raymond, approximately 10 per cent of Flight Centre’s store network could be culled – largely the result of a network consolidation which has led to many locations featuring several Flight Centre stores located closely together.

    “Following Flight Centre’s brand consolidation, 83 per cent of the ~950 store bricks-and-mortar network is now branded as Flight Centre. This has resulted in a high store density for a single brand, particularly as online penetration is rising,” Raymond said.

    “Our geospatial analysis of Flight Centre’s network has identified 259 Flight Centre branded stores that are located within 1km of another Flight Centre.

    “In our view, this creates an opportunity for store network consolidation to drive higher levels of profitability through lower rent and labour costs, and the expense of [total transaction value].”

    According to Raymond, this could drive an improvement of $8 million in profit before tax over two years.

    This could be particularly helpful for the brand as the Australian leisure bricks-and-mortar industry has seen a significant contraction in the last 12 to 18 months, falling from $106 million in FY18 to an estimated $29 million in FY19.

    A Flight Centre spokesperson told Inside Retail the travel retailer instead utilises this network to create more specialised business travel teams in CBD locations, and will offer “alternatives to Flight Centre” in shopping centres with multiple stores, such as the Universal Traveller brand.

    “We close some shops every year, relocate some others and, when good opportunities arise, we work closely with landlords to secure new sites and open new shops,” the spokesperson said.

    “Within Flight Centre brand in Australia, most of these openings in recent years have tended to be specialist shops and teams, rather than traditional Flight Centre shops.”

    However, many of the factors that led to the contraction of the leisure market are unlikely to continue into FY20 and FY21, Citi argues, with the leisure bricks-and-mortar industry forecasted to rebound by $5 million, to $34 million in FY20.

    Partially as a result of this market contraction, Flight Centre recently amended its guidance for the 2019 financial year from between $390 million and $420 million, to between $335 million and $360 million – roughly a 10 per cent decrease.

    “Our FY19 results will highlight the challenges we are addressing in Australia but will also underline two of our great strengths – our emergence as a world leader in corporate travel and our changing earnings profile,” Flight Centre managing director Graham Turner said.

    “While we expect Australian leisure results to improve as short-term operational improvement plans gain traction and as longer-term transformational strategies are implemented, we also expect these trends to continue.”

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  • Vietjet Recognised as One of the “Best Companies to Work for in Asia 2019”

    Vietjet Recognised as One of the “Best Companies to Work for in Asia 2019”

    Vietjet has been recognised as one of the best employers in Asia at the ” HR Asia – Best companies to work for in Asia 2019″ awards. Held in Ho Chi Minh City and organised by Asia’s leading human resource magazine, HR Asia Magazine, the awards recognise Vietnamese companies with the best working culture.-

    The HR Asia Awards is a prestigious regional award that evaluates and recognises companies with excellent working environments throughout Asia and has been held annually in various Asian countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Taiwan. Other companies in Ho Chi Minh City such as HDBank and Sun Group also received the award this year. HR Asia carries out in-depth surveys with senior executives and HR managers at leading Vietnamese companies to evaluate their HR policies, recruitment and strategies put in place to cultivate excellent working environments, among other factors to determine the winners of the award.

    Speaking about the award, Vietjet Managing Director Luu Duc Khanh said: “Our company’s greatest asset is our employees, and thus, we take great pride in creating a work environment and culture that fosters success. Vietjet’s success is contributed to by the performance of each employee and team work and this award is especially exciting as an employee survey is used as part of the evaluation. We will continue our commitment to investing in employee well-being and engagement in order to ensure our further success.” 

    The new-age airline Vietjet has not only created a “revolution” in the aviation industry by offering flying opportunities for millions of passengers all around the region and the world, but has also offered countless opportunities to its staff with a young, dynamic working environment, good benefits and good HR policies.

    Vietjet has been honored to be the best employer brand in Asia for many consecutive years and one of the top 50 airlines worldwide by Air Finance Journal for financing and operations. The company has also been recognised with many other domestic and international awards. 

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  • Canberra Airport announces new retail partners

    Canberra Airport announces new retail partners

    Canberra Airport is overhauling its terminal retail offering, with construction set to begin on more than 1000sqm of new shops in the coming months.

    On Friday, the airport announced Airport Retail Enterprises (ARE) has been awarded the food and beverage component of the new terminal retail, and Australian Way Pty Ltd (AWPL) has been awarded the news, books and gifting component.

    “We are excited about these new partnerships as we work through the last piece in our terminal puzzle,” Richard Snow, head of property at Canberra Airport, said in a statement.

    “We have worked for years, focusing on making the travel experience for Canberrans and our visitors as seamless and efficient as possible. Now we are proud to be able to add in more restaurants and café options as well as retail that helps visitors remember their trip with local produce and gifts.”

    ARE, which also manages food and drink offerings in Sydney Airport, Melbourne Airport, Brisbane Airport, Gold Coast Airport and Gatwick Airport in the UK, will create a new cafe, City Hill Coffee, featuring locally-roasted Ona coffee, an Asian noodle and sushi offering called Noodles XO and a health food offer on the Western Concourse.

    Several existing food and drink options on the Southern Concourse, will be replaced by Capital Brewing Co Bar, through a partnership with the local brewery of the same name. ARE will also add a mixed news, books, travel essentials and cafe space on the ground floor in the arrivals baggage hall.

    “Canberra has a fantastic local food scene, and we are very pleased to be partnering with many local producers to bring this to the airport,” John Chapman, CEO of ARE said in a statement.

    “The new terminal will become a fantastic showcase of the region’s produce.”

    AWPL, which operates stores in numerous domestic and international terminals around Australia and New Zealand, will initially bring a news, books and travel essentials offering called News@CBR to the airport.

    Following this, it will open a second store called Merchant Canberra, which will showcase iconic gifts from the city, surrounding region and Australia.

    “It is our absolute focus to connect with the local community, deliver a retail offering that brings commercial growth to Canberra Airport, and also significantly enhances the customer experience,” AWPL managing director Costa Kouros said in a statement.

    Construction of the new retail offerings is expected to begin in the coming months, with stage one to be finished by the end of this year. The second and final stage is expected to be complete by Easter 2020.

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  • Flight Centre grows in Corporate Travel

    Flight Centre grows in Corporate Travel

    Australian travel retailer Flight Centre Travel Group has furthered its position in the European market, taking full ownership of corporate travel business 3Mundi, which operates in France and Switzerland.

    Flight Centre acquired 25 percent of the business in June 2017, though has worked with 3Mundi since 2015 through its FCM Travel Solutions corporate travel management network as a licensee.

    With the acquisition, Flight Centre’s corporate travel network now extends to the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark.

    “France is an important business travel hub globally, and is now the world’s sixth largest corporate travel market, making it a significant future growth opportunity for our company,” Flight Centre managing director Graham Turner said.

    “We have worked closely with the 3Mundi team since 2015 and believe that this extension of our relationship will unlock further benefits – both for 3Mundi’s local customers and for FCM customers in general – and help us capitalize on this opportunity.”

    According to Turner, the deal will broaden 3Mundi’s reach, and give the business full access to Flight Centre’s corporate travel systems, products and customer offerings, while strengthening Flight Centre’s overall corporate network.

    3Mundi managing director Solenn Le Brazidec will continue to oversee the business’s day-to-day operations and has been appointed Flight Centre’s travel solutions’ general manager for France and Switzerland.

    “The incredible opportunity to wear the FCM brand for four years already has allowed us to grow and triple our turnover,” Le Brazidec said.

    “By now becoming a subsidiary of Flight Centre, we have a stronger global offering for our customers, a greater technological integration and more opportunities for growth.”

    3Mundi is not the first corporate travel business Flight Centre has invested in this year – having previously acquired a 25 percent stake in The Upside Travel Company, and becoming its largest individual shareholder.

    According to Flight Centre, during the six months to December 31, 2018, its corporate travel business generated about 37 percent of global total transactional value – about $4.2 billion.

    In late April, Flight Centre lowered its profit guidance for the 12 months to June 30, 2019, from between $390 million and $420 million to between $335 million and $360 million.

  • Vietjet Recognised as One of “Vietnam’s 50 Best Performing Companies in 2018”

    Vietjet Recognised as One of “Vietnam’s 50 Best Performing Companies in 2018”

    Vietjet was recognised as one of the leading companies in “Vietnam’s 50 Best Performing Companies 2018”. Held in Ho Chi Minh City on 27 June 2019, the award ceremony celebrated the leading companies listed on Vietnam’s stock market for their significant contribution to the economy.

    The annual event was conducted by Nhip Cau Dau Tu Magazine (Investment Bridge Magazine) in partnership with Thien Viet Securities, with expert economic and business consultants from Harvard Business School. The awards take reference from world ranking charts such as Bloomberg Businessweek, Fortune and Forbes to recognise and award listed companies for their performance and business results between 2016 and 2018. Success is based on Revenue Growth Rate, Return on Equity (ROE) and Earnings per Share (EPS).

    Vietjet’s SR-CAGR (Compounded Annual Growth Rate) and ROE were at 39.24 per cent and 59.7 per cent, respectively. Market capitalisation reached 2.68 billion USD, making Vietjet one of the largest capitalised enterprises on the Vietnam Stock Market. Since its listing, Vietjet has been recognized as a representative for successful Vietnamese enterprises.

    The top 50 companies this year have a total market capitalisation of 98 billion USD, with 17 companies exceeding 1 billion USD. Enterprises in the top 50 also generated a total of 1,200,000 billion VND (approximately 51 billion USD) and 127,000 billion VND (approximately 5.5 billion USD) in profits, an increase of 52 per cent and 47 per cent compared to the same period in previous years. In the context of an unsustainable global economy due to political reasons, the performance of Vietnamese enterprises in 2018 showed the potential for strong development and sustainability from leading Vietnamese companies.

    Hundreds of influential business leaders, financial institutions, macroeconomic executives, prestigious domestic and foreign investors attended the award ceremony and also participated in talks concerning the Macroeconomic forecasts for 2019 to 2020, amongst other international and local business topics.

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  • Thai AirAsia X begins new service to Brisbane

    Thai AirAsia X begins new service to Brisbane

    Thai AirAsia X has started its newest service from Bangkok to Brisbane, with the first arrival touching down at 11:46 am local time on Wednesday. This marks the first AirAsia service to Brisbane Airport. The aircraft received a water salute on arrival, courtesy of the airport’s fire and emergency service.

    The route is operated by Thai AirAsia X under flight number XJ310 (Bangkok to Brisbane) and XJ311 (Brisbane to Bangkok); duration of the flight is approximately nine hours and 20 minutes. Before this connection, the only non-stop service between Brisbane and Bangkok was operated by Thai Airways using the Boeing 777-200. The Malaysian AirAsia X serves Gold Coast Airport, which is located 90 kilometres (56 miles) south of Brisbane.

    We are delighted to have a new home in Queensland, adding Brisbane to our Queensland ports after we commenced operating flights from the Gold Coast in 2007. This direct service between Bangkok and Brisbane strengthens our connections into Australia and adds to our extensive network of more than 140 destinations worldwide.Nadda Buranasiri, AirAsia X CEO
    Asia is a key market for Queensland’s tourism industry and this new service will bring more than 235,000 inbound seats to Brisbane over the next three years, providing a $156 million boost to the state’s economy and supporting 660 jobs.Kate Jones, Minister for Tourism Industry Development

    Thai AirAsia X is a sister airline of AirAsia’s long haul carrier AirAsia X. The Thai airline is based at Bangkok Don Mueang Airport. Together with AirAsia X and Indonesia AirAsia X, it operates a fleet of 36 Airbus A330-300 with up to 100 of the new generation A330-900neo on order. Thai AirAsia X will soon receive its first A330neo and become the Asian launch-customer of the aircraft type. The airplane, which is already due for delivery, was on display at Paris Air Show 2019.

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  • AirAsia to move domestic flights to Kertajati airport starting June 30

    AirAsia to move domestic flights to Kertajati airport starting June 30

    Low-cost carrier AirAsia is to move its domestic flight operations from Husein Sastranegara International Airport in Bandung to Kertajati International Airport in Majalengka starting June 30.

    Majalengka is a 2.5- to 3-hour drive from Bandung, West Java.

    Meanwhile, AirAsia continues to offer international flights at Husein Sastranegara airport.

    Following this decision, flights to and from Bali are to land or depart at Kertajati airport. Hence, passengers who made Bali-Bandung bookings from June 30 onwards are advised to check their emails for new flight itineraries and to reprint their revised boarding passes.

    For those who are uncomfortable with having to change their travel plans, AirAsia announced in a statement that it is offering passengers a one-time chance until June 30 to change their flight date 30 calendar days in advance of the original scheduled flight date. There would be no additional cost but changing flights is subject to seat availability.

    The carrier is also accepting requests for full refunds for the value of passengers’ bookings at support.airasia.com.

    Information regarding Kertajati airport’s location and transportation options is available at bijb.co.id/akses-bandara.

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  • AirAsia announces five new domestic routes to Lombok, Labuan Bajo, Kertajati

    AirAsia announces five new domestic routes to Lombok, Labuan Bajo, Kertajati

    Low-cost carrier AirAsia launched five new domestic routes on Monday as it stated its “commitment to continue to support tourism and the economy by providing affordable flights”.

    Among the new services that will be operational on Aug. 1 are Jakarta-Lombok (11 times a week), Bali-Lombok (seven times a week), Yogyakarta’s Kulon Progo-Lombok (three times a week), Bali-Labuan Bajo (seven times a week) and Surabaya-West Java’s Kertajati (three times a week).

    Special promos are available for bookings made through airasia.com or the airline’s mobile app until June 30 for trips between Aug. 1 to Oct. 26, including for the Jakarta-Lombok (starting from Rp 635,000 [US$44.88]); Bali-Lombok (Rp 243,000) and Surabaya-Kertajati (Rp 626,000) routes. A free 15-kilogram baggage allowance is available for all the carrier’s domestic flights.

    “Since AirAsia’s newest hub in Lombok was inaugurated in early May and with the addition of our 25th Airbus A320 fleet, we are now ready to connect more and more of the country’s best destinations to support tourism and the local economy,” said AirAsia Indonesia managing director Dendy Kurniawan in a statement.

    AirAsia’s current domestic routes are Jakarta-Bali, Jakarta-Yogyakarta, Jakarta-Surabaya, Bali-Yogyakarta, Bali-Surabaya, Bali-Surakarta, Yogyakarta-Medan and Bandung-Bali.

  • AirAsia X looking to expand into Europe

    AirAsia X looking to expand into Europe

    AirAsia X is looking into expanding its market and does not discount the possibility of re-entering the European market.

    Chairman Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz said, before the company makes any decision, it needs to consider various factors including the operational costs and the projected revenue

    “We must also look at the total picture whether it can meet the challenges such the changes in oil prices, the various taxes in Europe airports and so on.

    “For example, the planes that were flying to London and Paris previously was not the right plane. The cost factor was the one that literally killed us from the market. Moving forward, we have to be realistic in making our decisions for

    the long term,” she told reporters after the unveiling of its new A330neo aircraft at the 53rd International Paris Air Show here.

    Rafidah said with the new planes which use more efficient engines, it would give added flexibility to the company to strategise and give better returns to its shareholders.

    On when the aircraft would be in operation, she said it would be decided by the board of directors based on the proposal by the management.

    Meanwhile, AirAsia X group chief executive officer, Nadda Buranasiri said the delivery of the A330neo aircraft would be in phases.

    “We expect that Airbus would probably be able to provide us six aircraft a year,” he said.

    The world’s leading low-cost carrier ordered a total of 100 A330-900 aircraft for RM122 billion from European planemaker Airbus, of which 66 aircraft are firmed orders and two on lease.

    Buranasiri said it would take the first aircraft next month while the second aircraft would be delivered in August, to be based in its Thailand hub, Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok.

    “We have not decided where the new fleet would fly to as we are still studying each market to understand the demand and how we could leverage it.

    “We are working it out to ensure that it will be profitable to us, while at the same time, make our shareholders and passengers happy.

    “We are not making excessive profits but it needs to have enough volumes,” he added.

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  • AirAsia crowned world’s best Airline again

    AirAsia crowned world’s best Airline again

    AirAsia has been named the World’s Best Low-Cost Airline at the Skytrax World Airline Awards 2019 for the 11th consecutive year.

    The airline won the title based on a survey of over 21.6 million passengers of 100 nationalities and over 300 airlines between September last year and May.

    AirAsia also won Asia’s Best Low-Cost Airline award and the World’s Best Low-Cost Airline Premium Cabin award for its premium flatbed on widebody long-haul AirAsia X aircraft.

    The prestigious Skytrax World Airline Awards are considered the global benchmark of airline excellence.

    AirAsia Group Berhad executive chairman Datuk Kamarudin Meranun and AirAsia X Berhad chairman Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz were among those who accepted the awards at the Paris International Air Show yesterday.

    Kamarudin said it was an honour for the airline to be recognised for its commitment to provide “affordable travel and guest-obsessed service”.

    “The fact that these awards are based on direct feedback is a gratifying and wonderful recognition for the Allstars who put so much effort and commitment into service excellence for our guests,” he said, referring to AirAsia employees.

    Rafidah also expressed her appreciation for the airline’s employees for AirAsia’s win in the World’s Best Low-Cost Carrier Premium Cabin category.

    “(This year’s) win represents nine years of being the world’s best in this category, and is dedicated to our Allstars who have been steadfast in upholding our corporate culture, mission and vision,” she said.

    She added that AirAsia X will introduce the new Airbus A330neo, an aircraft which will bring even greater inflight comfort to passengers.

    “Combined with our renowned inflight service as a long-haul low-cost carrier, AirAsia X will strive to continue to offer excellent value for money to our guests to 30 destinations in 10 markets across the AirAsia Group long-haul network,” she said.

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  • One million promotional tickets priced from MYR0 are up for grabs!

    One million promotional tickets priced from MYR0 are up for grabs!

    Pack your bags and get ready for an exciting summer as Vietjet is offering travellers an easy and affordable way to explore Vietnam and other parts of the region through its latest summer promotional campaign ‘Fly for Love – Show your summer version’.

    From 19 – 21 June 2019, 1,000,000 super-saving tickets from as low as MYR0 (*) will be up for grabs during the golden hours of 1pm to 3pm (Malaysian time). The offer is applicable for travels between 20 August 2019 to 31 December 2019 (**).

    The promotional tickets are applicable for all domestic routes in Vietnam and international routes from Vietnam to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia); Bali (Indonesia); Seoul, Busan, Daegu (South Korea); Kaohsiung, Taipei, Taichung, Tainan (Taiwan); Hong Kong; Singapore; Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai (Thailand); Yangon (Myanmar); Siem Reap (Cambodia), as well as all domestic and international routes in and from Thailand.

    Those looking to travel from Vietnam to Japan will be in for a special treat as the promotional fares will be up for grabs at all hours of the day during the promotion period. This is the perfect chance to grab your promotional tickets for a getaway trip in Vietnam and beyond with Vietjet’s expanding network around Asia.

    The promotional tickets are available for purchase via all sales channels including the airline’s website. Vietjet’s summer campaign is specially designed for people who are passionate about travel experiences and wish to step out of their comfort zone and start living the dream! This campaign is also a wonderful opportunity for people to leave their worries at the door, express themselves in a fun way and immerse in the jubilant festival atmosphere this summer.

    That’s not all! Those unafraid to showcase their fun side will also be rewarded with exclusive gifts as Vietjet passengers dressed up in their favourite cosplay costume while travelling on a Vietjet flight from 1 June 2019 to 31 July 2019 will also receive a special gift.

    Since operating its first flight in 2011, Vietjet has been a pioneering airline, winning the hearts of millions of travellers thanks to its exciting promotions, in-flight entertainment, especially during the festive seasons. With high-quality services, diverse ticket classes, Vietjet offers its passengers flying experiences on new aircraft with comfy seats and delicious hot meals served by a lovely, dedicated and friendly cabin crew, and many more enticing add-on services

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