AirAsia X resumes Melbourne flights after two-year hiatus

MELBOURNE: Long-haul low-cost airline AirAsia X Bhd has finally resumed service to Melbourne, Australia after a long two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic with its inaugural flight today.

The budget carrier's chief executive officer, Benyamin Ismail said AirAsia X had commenced its three times weekly flight from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne and the frequency will eventually be increased to daily by the first quarter of 2023.

"We're going to go seven (flights) per week to Melbourne as well as Sydney, Perth and Auckland, New Zealand as well," he told reporters after the inaugural flight from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne here today.

The inaugural flight touched down at 6.25am (Melbourne time) at the Tullamarine Airport with 82 per cent load factor, which showed signs of high demand on this route.

Australia was the first destination that AirAsia X fly to back in November 2007. AirAsia X also re-started its service to Auckland, New Zealand via Sydney yesterday.

AirAsia X chairman Tunku Datuk Mahmood Fawzy said Australia was one of the key markets for the airline as it served several communities including students, business, leisure and tourism.

"It's great to be back (in Melbourne). It's almost like a return home when we've been away for such a long time. We need to come back. This is part of our anchor for our business, for our guests especially the community, the students, business, leisure and tourism," he said.

Benyamin added that AirAsia X had contributed 45 per cent of the market share for flights between Australia and Malaysia with up to 92 flights to four destinations.

He also said following the recent return to Sydney and with the resumption of services to Melbourne and Perth this week, the budget carrier would reconnect a total of 24 flights per week to three key destinations in Australia.

"AirAsia X also plans to recover over 50 per cent against its pre-pandemic flight frequency to Australia by the third quarter of 2023," he said.

Currently, AirAsia X is operating six Airbus A330 wide-body aircraft and by year-end it is expected to add another two aircraft to its fleet.

Benyamin said the airline was aiming to operate 24 of its aircraft by the end of 2023 just like before the pandemic. At the moment, most of AirAsia X's aircraft are under maintenance.

AirAsia X is offering all-in fares on sales from today / yesterday until 6th November 2022 for the travel period between 1st January 2023 and 28th October 2023.

The price for all-in one way from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne is RM1,399 for economy and RM4,499 one way for premium flatbed.

From Kuala Lumpur to Auckland via Sydney, the price is RM1,799 all-in one way for economy and RM6,999 one way for premium flatbed.

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