AirAsia Requested to Restore Services to Mumbai and Delhi

Tuesday, 11th September 2012 at 03:52am

Vijay K. Gokhale, India's High Commissioner to Malaysia was appealing to AirAsia officials to restore air service between Malaysia and the Indian cities of Mumbai and Delhi in order to promote tourism in both countries.

To recall, AirAsia X, suspended all its air services from Malaysia to these two Indian cities in March this year. He remarked that Malaysia's goal to become a major tourism hub in the region will be greatly affected in the long term if regular flights to Delhi and Mumbai are not restored.

Mr. Gokhale revealed that 693,000 Indian tourists visited Malaysia in 2011, registering a growth of 10 percent over the previous year. He said that if the trend continues, Malaysia would benefit more this year if air services are restored immediately and by 2015, Malaysia would have received one million visitors from the subcontinent.

He further said that due to the cancellation of flights originating from Malaysia, its next-door neighbors, Singapore and Thailand, have emerged as popular destinations for Indian tourists.

Before the suspension of AirAsia X flights, Indian travelers were scrambling to go to Malaysia primarily because of the Southeast Asian country's beautiful tourist spots complimented by its top-notch tourist facilities such as world-class hotel accommodations which are quite affordable.

He pointed out that Malaysia has the fewest number of flights to India behind Singapore and Thailand from Southeast Asian region.

The Commissioner also acknowledged that the suspension of air services by AirAsia X affect India as well. He specifically pointed out that the issuance of tourist visas to Malaysian travelers to India significantly dropped. He said that travel demand between the two countries was huge before the suspension.

He was wondering how could AirAsia say that market demand from India was low when airline rivals from Thailand and Singapore increase their respective services to subcontinent's two major destinations.

He observed that MAS flights from north India are mostly full due to strong demand. The real issue is that tourists from north India to Malaysia are growing and they are willing to fork out more just to see the beauty of Malaysia. If flights are restored soon, he was confident that air travelers from the north of India to Malaysia will surge.

AirAsia, however, retains most of its air services between the major cities of southern India to Malaysia.

The airline's CEO, Azran Osman-Rani, disclosed that aside from the weak travel demand from Mumbai and Delhi, he cited other major reasons for the carrier's decision to suspend services to the two cities. The long-haul budget airline couldn't sustain its operation to this northern cities due in part to the exorbitant charges imposed by their respective airports. Other reason cited was the visa restrictions imposed on travelers between the two countries.

AirAsia maintains its regular services to south India - Bangalore, Kochi, Kolkata, Chennai and Tiruchirapalli.

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