2 months ago
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Malaysia-based low cost carrier AirAsia is planning to add six more Indian cities to its route map by end 2024, most of which would be Tier 2/3 cities, said a top official.
“Currently, we connect 14 Indian cities from Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok. Jaipur will get added on April 21, Visakhapatnam on April 26 and Ahmedabad on May 1, followed by Patna, Aurangabad and Calicut,” said Head of Operations Kesavan Sivanandam at a press meet.
“With this, we have exhausted all the bilateral routes. We have already started discussions at the top level to explore new routes. India is a key, significant and crucial market for us. It accounts for 18% of revenue. AirAsia has a market share of 51% between India and Malaysia,” he said.
According to him, the airline is focusing on tier-2/3 cities such as Coimbatore, Madurai, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram and Ranchi among others. However, it faces challenges in terms of non-availability of Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) slots.
To a question, he said the airlines has 200 aircraft and another 25 will be added in 60-70 days equivalent to post pandemic strength. Besides, it has also placed orders for 650 new aircraft and the deliveries are expected to take place by the year end.
On the divestment of AirAsia India to Tata Sons, he said it was a strategic decision as they wanted to focus on ASEAN markets.
A Malaysian Tourism official said 5.87 Indians visited Malaysia for the first 11 months of 2023, which is more than 1 lakh (4.62 lakh) for the same period in 2022. He expected Indian arrivals to be between 7 and 9 lakh in 2024 due to the introduction of visa free entry for Indians till the end of the year.
