AirAsia ready to conquer India
KUALA LUMPUR – AirAsia has unwrapped plans to add new routes to nine Indian cities to tap demand.
The low cost carrier launched flights to Calcutta from Kuala Lumpur last Friday
It will add flights to Kochi and Trivandrum, followed by Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad from April 2010, and Mumbai and Delhi at the end of 2010.
It is also looking to fly to Amritsar from Bangkok, according to local reports.
“Next year we are planning to launch flights from Calcutta to Bangkok and Phuket,” said Kathleen Tan, the regional head (commercial) of AirAsia.
“With the commencement of the direct service to Kuala Lumpur, the people in West Bengal and India may now use Calcutta as a gateway to our extensive route network to ASEAN and beyond.â€
AirAsia boss Tony Fernandes told bernama.com, ”The whole Indian sub-continent is going to be very exciting for AirAsia and the Malaysian tourism industry.
“By next year, (there will be) six routes from Malaysia to India and three via Thailand.”
AirAsia plans to list on the Thai and Indonesian stock exchanges in a bid to tap the region’s capital markets despite a turbulent year for airlines.
Group chief executive Tony Fernandes said the moves would give it more of a Southeast Asian identity.
“We are an ASEAN company. We want many ASEAN investors to buy our shares,” he told AFP.
Ian Jarrett
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