Fly to Kuala Lumpur for Just Dh99
20 August 2009
“The fare of Dh99 for one way flight between Abu Dhabi and Kuala Lumpur is all inclusive, and there will no separate fuel surcharge or even airport tax. This promotional offer will be available for travel between November 23 this year and July 31, 2010, and the booking period is from tonight to August 26,’’ Azran Osman Rani, the CEO of AirAsia X, told a Press conference here on Wednesday. According to him the unit cost of Air Asia X is as low as 2.4 cents per available seat kilometre, whereas this is about 7 to 8 cents even for ordinary carriers.
“We use focused type of airplanes instead of many different types of airplanes, so we don’t require different types of crews and service infrastructure. And we fly the planes lot more than other airlines, almost 18 hours a day, whereas traditional model airlines fly their planes 13 hours a day.”
“Other airlines focus on the premium market and have to keep the aircrafts for hours together in the airports, to suit to the time sensitivities of that class of passengers. We target a different segment of passengers who are price sensitive and time insensitive. They are not worried about the landing timings or transit durations provided they can save some money. So we keep our planes flying, and we are able to utilise our assets significantly more than others.’’
He said the introductory fare would be revised after some time. “But at any point time our charges will be 50 to 60 per cent of the normal carriers. And also we will be revisiting these introductory fares during our frequent promotional offers.’’
ramavarman@khaleejtimes.ae