AirAsia Malaysia to Increase Flights to Numerous Cities in China

Dark/Light Mode (01/08/23)  AirAsia has unveiled plans to increase flights to China as demand continues to accelerate.

AirAsia Malaysia (AK) will resume flights between Kota Kinabalu and Hangzhou with a thrice weekly service slated to take off on 2 September 2023.

AirAsia Malaysia currently flies 14 routes to/from China with over 104 weekly flights from Kuala Lumpur to Guilin, Quanzhou, Guangzhou, Kunming, Shenzhen, Nanning, Shantou and Macao; Kota Kinabalu to Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Beijing and Macao; and Johor Bahru to Guangzhou.

AirAsia Airbus A320 aircraft at klia2 in July 2023. Picture by Steven Howard of TravelNewsAsia.com

“The resumption of flights from Kota Kinabalu to Hangzhou aligns perfectly with our commitment to connecting second-tier cities to the world as part of our commitment to serve the underserved. We are also planning to increase the frequency of this route to seven flights weekly starting in October based on demand,” said AirAsia Malaysia CEO, Riad Asmat. “The enhanced connectivity will not only boost high-value travellers arrivals into Malaysia but also provide crucial support to Malaysia's domestic travel demand. We look forward to expanding our connectivity and frequency between Malaysia and China from other hubs as well in the future.”

AirAsia X Malaysia (D7) is also boosting services, increasing flights from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing (Daxing) from four to five per week beginning 1 September, from Kuala Lumpur to Shanghai from four to seven flights weekly commencing 15 September, and from Kuala Lumpur to Hangzhou from three to four flights per weekly starting 30 September 2023.

AirAsia X Malaysia currently flies four routes to/from China with over 22 flights per week from Kuala Lumpur to Chengdu (Tianfu), Beijing (Daxing), Shanghai, and Hangzhou.

Benyamin Ismail, AirAsia X Malaysia CEO, said, “In addition to fostering additional links, further enhancing trade, tourism and investments between the two countries, the increased frequencies of our flights on the most popular routes will also optimise our efficiencies, which results in increased fleet utilisation for AAX. This means our guests can not only experience less costs and spend less time waiting but importantly, have more time exploring to make the most of their trips.”

The average number of guests carried per flight (load factor) for both AirAsia Malaysia (AK) and AirAsia X Malaysia (D7) flights to/from China was about 80 percent in July.

Several of the strongest performing routes were Kuala Lumpur-Shanghai, Kota Kinabalu-Guangzhou, Kuala Lumpur-Nanning and Kota Kinabalu-Wuhan, which are expected to record up to 95 percent load factors in the coming months.

Both airlines have sold more than 320,000 seats between China and Malaysia from March to early July this year, which is about 30 percent compared to the same period pre-COVID in 2019.

About 75 percent of the seats sold are going to Chinese nationals, a clear sign that the country of Malaysia continues to be one of the preferred destinations for tourists from China.

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