AirAsia X to Fly to Europe Soon, Says Fernandes

28th Apr 2017

During the 17^th WTTC Global Summit held on 26th and 27th April in Bangkok, Thailand, Tony Fernandes, CEO of AirAsia Group told the reporters of the company’s plans to have AirAsia X fly to Europe. Mr. Fernandes said this would happen soon, but did not reveal the exact route the long-haul; low-cost arm of AirAsia Bhd will take.

We do not it will almost certainly be United Kingdom, as Fernandes hinted to London, Manchester and Dublin as the potential destinations.

He told the reporters:

We were about to launch the Europe route when the Ukraine crisis happened.

Fernandes was at the summit as one of the key speakers and was interviewed by WRRC president and CEO David Scowsill on the “Responsible and Responsive Leadership” during the “Meet the Experts” session.

In addition to Fernandes, former British PM David Cameron, Thailand’s Minister of Tourism and Sports Kobkarn Wattanavrangkul and secretary general of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UN WTO) Taleb Rifai were also among the key speakers at the event.

The summit itself attracted around 800 prominent figures in the international travel and tourism industry and ministers from 13 different countries.

AirAsia X Carrier 1.4M Passenger in Q1 2017

Meanwhile, AirAsia X released it passenger numbers for the first quarter of this year. Ending with 31^st March, 2017, AAX carried 1.4 million passengers, which was 33% up from 1.055 million in the same period in 2016.

In addition, the airline also reported that its capacity grew 28% from 1.29 million in Q1 2016 to 1.66 million in Q1 2017.

In a statement, the carrier said:

The company continues to stimulate demand to fill up the additional capacity injected in 1Q17, by achieving higher passenger load factor (PLF), up two percentage points (ppts) to 84% in 1Q17 from 82% in the same period last year, on the back of 29% year-on-year growth in available seat per kilometres (ASK) to 8,324 million in 1Q17.

Moving forward in 2017, the group remains prudent in its expansion plan, continues to explore strategic initiatives to ensure sustainable growth and strengthen our position in core markets where we can build up our market leadership position.