AirAsia Plans to Serve KL-Jakarta-Labuan Bajo Route

10th Nov 2016

According to the East Nusa Tenggara Tourism and Creative Economy Office Chief Marius Ardu Jelamu, Malaysian low-cost carrier (LCC) AirAsia is planning to soon start servicing the route between Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Labuan Bajo.

On Wednesday, Mr. Jelamu said:

There has been an agreement with the central government and the airline company that AirAsia will serve this new route starting from next year.

He also added that the new AirAsia route will have a positive impact on the flow of tourists from Labuan Bajo to the East Nusa Tenggara province.

Jelamu explained that tourism progress depends on the smooth air transport connectivity and said:

This new service of AirAsia will enable more foreign tourists to visit the leading destinations in East Nusa Tenggara.

He further added that his party is also pushing for the opening of Kupang-Dili-Darwin route, in addition to the KL-Jakarta-Labuan Bajo route, saying:

In addition to air connectivity from the west, the one from the south, namely from Australia to East Nusa Tenggara, also has its share of attractive markets for linking the three countries. We hope that the Ministry of Transport will quickly agree on the proposed route service with the airline.

The Kupang-Dili-Darwin route has been closed since the 1990s.

AirAsia to Move to KLIA Entirely? Impossible Says MAHB

Meanwhile, it seems that the Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) has thrown yet another wrench in AirAsia Group’s plans to move its operations entirely from KLIA2 to KLIA.

MAHB Managing Director Badlisham Ghazali said it would be difficult for AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines to transfer their operations to KLIA entirely as the capacity there is relatively full, especially in peak periods.

Mr. Ghazali said:

KLIA is predominantly AirAsia. They are large carriers. My answer would be ‘no’ if they want to move entirely to KLIA. It is the same thing for Malaysia Airlines. It will also be difficult for Malaysia Airlines to move to KLIA2 although the airport capacity is still big enough because the airline still has international flights. They would not move efficiently.

He added:

KLIA’s capacity is already reaching its maximum now. AirAsia can only move during non-peak periods, for example from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. but during peak hours (6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.) it would be impossible to accommodate AirAsia.