Air Asia’s million seat giveaway
KUALA LUMPUR – Air Asia is giving away – well, almost – one million free seats for all its domestic and international destinations from its hubs in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Johor), Thailand (Bangkok) and Indonesia (Jakarta and Bali).
The free seat campaign includes over 105 routes in the Asean and China networks, including AirAsia X’s long haul destinations.
Travellers will pay only the taxes and charges.
Some of the international destinations included in this campaign, and which only AirAsia flies directly from Kuala Lumpur, are Makassar, Manado, Solo, Krabi, Chiang Mai, the newly launched Guilin, Shenzhen, Haikou, Bandung and Vientiane.
Other destinations include Bali, Jakarta, Bangkok, Phuket, Singapore, Macau, Siem Reap, Ho Chi Minh and Hong Kong.
New destinations Perth and Melbourne, serviced by AirAsia X, are also included in the campaign.
The sale means travellers could fly from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur for A$182 one-way, from the Gold Coast for A$171, or from Perth for A$157.
AirAsia X announced last week it would begin operations in Melbourne from November 12. It also announced plans to introduce long-haul flights on the ‘kangaroo route’ – between Australia and London – in March next year.
AirAsia X’s Australian general manager, Darren Wright, said the airline would benefit from the giveaway fares in the long run.
“There’s goodwill and publicity, obviously, but it also gives people an opportunity to fly and try,” he said. “If they like us, and they will like us, they’ll fly with us again and perhaps tell their friends.”
AirAsia chief Tony Fernandes recently said that his aim in Australia was both “to bring Australians to our hub in Kuala Lumpur so as to feed them into our Asian network and to send Asian tourists to Australia combining our network with AirAsia X”.
The free seats are available for the following dates:
Booking period: 26 – 31 August 2008
Travel period: 1 April – 31 July 2009
Ian Jarrett
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