New long-haul low-cost carrier AirAsia X has launched commercial services, with its maiden flight taking off from Kuala Lumpur tonight (2 November) for the Gold Coast in Australia.
The carrier, which is part-owned by Malaysia’s AirAsia Group and Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group will initially operate four weekly flights on the Kuala Lumpur-Gold Coast route with a used Airbus A330-300 configured with 279 economy and 36 premium economy seats.
Here the aircraft is towed from the gate at about 10:00pm Malaysia time this evening as it prepares to depart on the maiden scheduled flight.
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The flight is scheduled to land in Australia tomorrow (3 November) at 07:40 Queensland time. AirAsia X, which was conceived early this year by AirAsia founder and its chief executive Tony Fernandes, has 15 new A330-300s on order and is expected to soon place an order for up to 25 Airbus A350 XWBs.
Flights to China are expected to commence before the end of this year followed by flights to the UK via the Middle East after the A330 is delivered in the second half of next year.
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Fernandes (sixth from the right) celebrates prior to boarding the first flight with AirAsia Group deputy chief executive Kamarudin Meranun (fourth from the left), Australia High Commissioner to Malaysia Penny Williams (seventh to the right) and AirAsia X chief executive Azran Osman-Rani (third to the right) |
For more on AirAsia X, to read Airline Business's recent interview with Azran Osman-Rani.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
