AirAsia X Launches Kuala Lumpur-Jeju, South Korea

10th Oct 2017

China, Japan and South Korea markets are the first on line for expansion, said AirAsia X Group Chief Executive Officer Kamarudin Meranun.

The long-haul low-cost carrier’s CEO said that AirAsia X will be reallocating some of its Australian capacity to new markets starting 2018.

He said:

We have to be very selective of our routes, seeing that our aircraft is limited and we will only get more aircraft next year. Demand is starting to pick up from Thailand and Indonesia, and we believe that the next market of growth will be in North Asia. This explains why we are expanding in South Korea, Japan, and China.

Kamarudin added that AirAsia X would only be decreasing the frequencies of its flights and not completely discontinue the routes.

Kamarudin said this during the launch of AirAsia X’s new service from Kuala Lumpur to Jeju in South Korea. The airline will operate direct flights between the two cities starting from 12^th December, 2017.

Promotional one-way fares for the new route will start at RM199 for Economy Class and RM899 for the Premium Flatbed Class and can be booked from 10^th until 15^th October and used for travel between 12^th December, 2017 and 25^th March, 2018. Booking is available on airasia.com.

AirAsia X CEO Benyamin Ismail said the airline aims to reach a passenger load factor of 80% for the KL-Jeju route in the first 12 months.

He said:

South Korea is an important market and we have seen tremendous growth from our existing routes to Seoul and Busan, which will now be complemented by our new service to Jeju, saving our guests the hassle of domestic transit to the island province. This new route will provide additional annual capacity of over 150,000 and will be a significant boost to strengthen business and tourism ties between Malaysia and South Korea.

The AirAsia subsidiary will fly four times per week between Kuala Lumpur and Jeju.

Each year, about two million passengers travel between Malaysia and South Korea, making Malaysia the second largest tourist markets in South Korea. Only China is ahead.