AirAsia sold 41,000 seats in one day, to offer unlimited pass in other markets

AirAsia has revealed that it has registered its highest post-hibernation sale day yesterday with record-breaking 41,000 seats sold on 23rd June 2020 across the AirAsia Group. This is an indication that there’s a strong demand for air travel following the lifting of movement restrictions at several countries.

The low-cost carrier added that its website had experienced traffic growth of 170%. The load factor for the AirAsia group averaged at around 50% while AirAsia Malaysia has a load factor of 70%, which is the highest since the resumption of domestic flights on 29th April.

According to the airline, some of the popular routes booked include Kota Kinabalu and Kuching to Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok to Chiang Mai and Hat Yai, Manila to Puerto Princesa and Davao, Delhi to Srinagar and Bengaluru to Hyderabad and Jakarta to Denpasar and Medan.

Unlimited Pass for other markets

AirAsia Group CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said they are encouraged by this positive trend and they foresee the trend to continue in the coming weeks. He added that AirAsia’s RM399 Unlimited Pass Cuti-cuti Malaysia was introduced to support the government’s effort to stimulate and encourage domestic travel. AirAsia will be rolling out its Unlimited Pass for other markets soon.

To boost the domestic tourism industry, AirAsia has also introduced Snap which allows tourists to book flight + hotel combo with bigger savings. At the moment, AirAsia is running a promo offering 20% off on all seats for all flights in Malaysia.

The Group CEO also shared that they are aiming to increase its flight frequencies to around 50% of its pre-COVID operations and they are looking forward to resuming all domestic routes in the coming weeks and months to cater to the increasing demand. AirAsia is currently operating 152 daily flights across the region and they are looking forward to the reopening of international borders.

At the moment, Malaysians are permitted to travel within the country with strict SOP to minimise the risk of infections. As shared by the Ministry of Health, the government is looking at reopening our borders to 6 green zone countries namely Singapore, Brunei, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea. However, there’s no clear timeline just yet and talks between governments are still in its early stage.

According to the Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, the respective governments would have to discuss and finalise the SOP required between the countries before they can reopen their borders. Commenting on the possible reopening of the Malaysia-Singapore border, Singapore’s Foreign Affair Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said that the country will take a step-by-step approach instead of a complete no holds barred reopening.

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