AirAsia applauds the announcement by the Malaysian government to fully open international borders on 1 April and is ready to paint the international skies red again.
With the continued easing of travel restrictions, the airline group has increased its domestic flight capacity by 156% since October 2021 that kickstarted with the Langkawi travel bubble, and by 50% for international flights since the Malaysian government’s announcement of borders reopening in April, on 8 March 2022, with a total of 75 aircraft in operations currently group-wide. This was also supported by the reopening of other countries like Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia Cambodia, Singapore and Vietnam.
While the airline currently has a number of international services already operating, the announcement of the nation’s reopening will provide a welcome boost to support additional capacity in many of its core international markets in line with significant pent up demand.
“We’re thrilled to be resuming more flights in all of our core markets in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia and to be adding additional services to some of AirAsia’s most popular international destinations including Bali, Manila, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Phuket and more, starting in April. Domestic flying also continues to soar across the group. We have recently launched four new domestic routes in Malaysia from Kuching to Langkawi, Penang to Sibu, Johor Bahru to Bintulu and Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Terengganu this year,” Bo Lingam, Group CEO of AirAsia Aviation Group Limited (AAAGL) said
“Regionally, we have seen similarly encouraging developments for domestic and international services in Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia. We will continue to review our network which evolves based on a number of factors including demand. New services will be announced in due course as the world continues to gradually reopen. While our domestic services across the group have grown by 156% in recent months due to significant consumer demand, and by 50% for international, we expect to return to 100% or more of pre-Covid domestic and international flying by the end of this year,” he added.
“While we are extensively prepared to ensure all of our guests can travel safely from an operational standpoint through the robust safety and health measures that we have in place, we would also like to remind our guests to adhere to all SOPs set by the government during your travels and we can’t wait to see you on back on board our flights soon,” Riad Asmat, CEO of AirAsia Malaysia said
AirAsia encourages all their guests to migrate and upgrade to the all-in-one airasia Super App for their seamless and contactless self-check-in.
AirAsia’s counter check-in service will be strictly for exempted categories of guests only at all airports in Malaysia from 1 April 2022. Among the exempted groups are senior citizens aged 70 and above, people with disabilities registered with the Welfare Department, young passengers travelling alone, group bookings of 10 guests and more, charter flight passengers and more.
