AirAsia X takes off for Auckland via Gold Coast

KUALA LUMPUR: AirAsia X Bhd (AAX) will be including a stopover in Gold Coast, Australia, a first for the long-haul, low-cost carrier, in a bid to ensure the profitability of its newly announced flight to Auckland, New Zealand.
The announcement marks its re-entry to the long-haul market after consciously making a decision in 2012 to focus on medium-haul or eight-hour radius flights after suffering losses in its long-haul routes previously.
When contacted by SunBiz its CEO Benyamin Ismail said the move is not a change in its strategy for the airline, which has flown direct to its 18 destinations across Asia thus far.
"We felt that it'd be a good idea to attract more traffic coming into Auckland. It also helps with the costs.
"About 25%-30% of the local population in Brisbane are Kiwis. The opportunity for them to go back on a low-cost version is massive. The opportunity is there in terms of load. There is a 2-3 million population in Auckland. It makes sense for us to go back," said Benyamin after the launch of the route here yesterday.
He added that Australia has always been a key market for AAX and the new route signifies its commitment to developing flight connectivity in the region, and its continuous effort to expand its operations.
"We've all the confidence that this new route will thrive, riding on the success we achieved from our other Australian routes," Benyamin said, adding that the introduction of the route is in line with its turnaround initiatives that it believe will bring positive contribution to the bottom line.
The airline also plans to add two to three more new routes in its network this year, including Hawaii in the first half this year, as well as one or two routes in China in the second half of the year, pending approvals.
"We're still pursuing approvals for the Hawaiian routes. We're still doing the math to make sure it makes sense for us. For China, a booming market, we see that Beijing, Hangzhou, Chengdu flights did well so we'd probably be adding one or two more and probably look at increasing capacity on those routes," he said.
He added that AAX is looking at destinations where it can get airport and tourism support to reduce the cost of the route that will lead to profitability.

Auckland is its second new route launch this year following the introduction of New Delhi, which it will start operating on Feb 3.
Meanwhile, Benyamin said AAX will take about four aircraft deliveries which were deferred from last year, this year.
"We've deferred a lot of deliveries to this year. We're taking about four aircraft this year, but a lot are going to our associates in Thailand and Indonesia, only two will be for the Malaysian fleet. In the next two years, after this year, we're not taking any more deliveries. The key focus for us is to make sure that New Zealand and Australia (routes) work and China is our second biggest contributing revenue carrier for us," said Benyamin.
The stock closed unchanged at 18 sen yesterday with 3.1 million shares traded.