AirAsia looks to triple India share of passenger mix

AirAsia, one of Asia’s best own low-cost airline brands, expects to fly around two million passengers to and from India in the next three years, more than triple the six lakh Indians it currently flies. “Mumbai is our sixth destination city in India, after Trivandrum, Kolkata, Chennai, Kochi and Tiru Chirapalli. We will be adding Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi too this year,” said Tony Fernandes, group CEO, founder of AirAsia. Fernandes said the airline is also interested in mounting flights to Pune, Amritsar and Coimbatore at a later stage.


The airline flew over 23 million passengers in 2009 globally. On Thursday, AirAsia inaugurated its flight to Mumbai from Kuala Lumpur signifying its foray into the western India market. The airline will operate four direct flights per week through its long haul, low fare affiliate, AirAsia X, Fernandes said. The firm has deployed Airbus A330 aircraft on the Mumbai-Kuala Lumpur route. As a special offer it will make available Mumbai-to-Malaysia tickets for Rs 1,193 (excluding airport tax) on Friday (May 7). Jointly, the AirAsia group will have a total of 148 flights per week to various destinations in India by end of this year, the statement added. Financial Chronicle learns that the company is planning to raise over $360 million to fund its aircraft acquisition in this calendar year. “We would be raising around $30 million as debt per plane to fund the acquisition of 12 Airbus aircraft this year,” said Azran Osm an Rani, CEO, AirAsia X.

The airline currently has a fleet of 92 Airbus aircraft and would be adding nine A320 and three A330 aircraft by end-2010. “We are in talks with European export credit agencies to raise funds for this purchase,” added Rani.

The above article was extracted from Skyline updates of Skyline College. Skyline College is amongst the top MBA and BBA institutes in Delhi, Gurgaon (NCR).