The airline will fly the route from Feb 1 and the free seats were made available since noon yesterday until Sunday via www.airasia.com for the travel period from Feb 1 to Oct 25.
Feb 1 will mark the success off a plan hatched some six years ago. Then, AirAsia began cheekily enticing Singaporeans with the tagline: “There’s a new girl in town, she’s twice the fun and half the price.”
The plans to introduce a KL-Singapore service, however, ground to a halt as some people were not amused.
But AirAsia chief executive officer Datuk Tony Fernandes continued fighting hard to break the decades-old monopoly on the route enjoyed by Malaysia Airlines and Singapore Airlines.
Thus his elation when AirAsia finally got the green light recently.
“It is indeed a major milestone in the aviation industry for both countries, and we are thrilled to fly to Singapore from our Kuala Lumpur hub starting from Feb 1,” he told Malaysian and Singaporean pressmen here yesterday.
AirAsia will fly twice daily – 10am and 7.50pm – to Changi and return at 11.30am and 9.40pm. Fares start at RM29.99 for one-way travel.
Fernandes outlined AirAsia's plans for the sector, saying: “We are confident that within five years we will be able to accommodate around five to seven million passengers on this route with 20 flights per day.
“To achieve this, we are planning to expand our fleet of aircraft. On average, we’re talking about adding 24 planes a year.”
Asked which terminal would be used at Changi Airport to accommodate the flights, he said this had yet to be determined.
“It will either be Terminal 1 or the Budget Terminal. We are in the midst of discussion but will come to a decision very soon,” he said.
He also said the new route would provide AirAsia X – the airline’s low-cost long-haul carrier – with greater access to newer markets.
“With an increase in flight frequency, perhaps in the future we could launch other destinations to Singapore such as from Penang, Kota Kinabalu or even Jakarta to cater to the huge demand,” he said.
Air Asia now competes head to head with two other budget airlines, namely Tiger Airways and Jetstar Asia Airlines – both of which were awarded the rights to operate a daily KL-Singapore service by Singapore’s Transport Ministry last month.
Source : STAR
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