As Malaysia reopens its international borders on 1st April 2022, AirAsia is optimistic that it will return to 100% or more of pre-COVID domestic and international flying by the end of this year. The low-cost carrier has been steadily increasing its flight frequencies in Malaysia since the introduction of travel bubbles. They have resumed several international routes as more countries have reopened their borders.
According to AirAsia, they have increased their domestic flight capacity by 156% since October 2021, while international flight capacity has increased by 50% for international flights following the Malaysian government’s announcement of border reopening. This is also supported by the reopening of other countries including Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Singapore, and Vietnam.
At the moment, they have a total of 75 aircraft in operations group-wide which includes 72 Airbus A320, two A321 and one A330. The airline will be resuming more flights in all of their core markets in Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia, as well as introducing 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.
In the domestic scene, AirAsia has recently launched several new routes in Malaysia including Kuching to Langkawi, Penang to Sibu, Johor Bahru to Bintulu and Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Terengganu. It aims to increase its total domestic flight frequency to 1,124 flights per week by the end of April, which is close to pre-covid levels of 1,163 flights per week.
The airline is also seeing similar encouraging developments for both domestic and international services in Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia. They will continue to review their network which evolves on several factors including demand.
AirAsia Aviation Group Limited Group CEO Bo Lingam said “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.”
In conjunction with the reopening of international borders, AirAsia is currently offering flight bookings to popular destinations such as Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, India, Thailand, Indonesia, the Maldives, Brunei, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Laos, Bangladesh and more, from RM39 one-way. The promo is available from now until 27th March 2022 for travel between 1st April 2022 to 25th March 2023.
To ensure guests can travel safely, AirAsia has implemented several measures including contactless self-check-in which can be done on the AirAsia Super App and website. AirAsia has recently reintroduced FACES, a facial recognition technology that uses your face as your boarding pass, for selected flights.
As announced recently, AirAsia is gradually phasing out physical check-in counters as passengers are encouraged to check-in via the app to get a digital e-boarding pass and use the provided self-baggage drop. Passengers can self-check-in online up to 14 days before the departure date.
Physical counters in airports in Malaysia are still available and are offered for free to selected guests which include senior citizens aged 70 years old and above, people with disabilities registered with the Welfare Department, young passengers travelling alone, group bookings of 10 guests and charter flight passengers. Passengers are reminded to adhere to all SOPs including wearing a face mask throughout the journey.
Before making a trip overseas, do check on the travel requirement of the destination country. Passengers may be required to prepare proof of vaccination, additional documentation, and PCR test results before flying. In case you missed it, AirAsia has recently reintroduced fuel surcharge which starts from RM10 for domestic flights and from RM25 for international flights.
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