Air Asia the biggest and Largest airline in China

By The Star

AirAsia has added Kunming, the southwestern capital of Yunnan Province, as a new destination to strengthen its existing 23-route network in China.

The new route, which takes off from Kuala Lumpur, will commence operations on Dec 10 with weekly flights on alternate days Monday to Sunday.

A promotional all-in fare of RM88 onwards one way is good for booking from today until Oct 27.

“According to the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), AirAsia is the largest foreign airline in China at the moment, and we will continue to work hard to maintain this,” AirAsia Bhd chief executive officer Aireen Omar said at a press conference yesterday.

Over the last few years, AirAsia has been reaching into second-tier cities in China, a move that has yielded promising results for the low-cost airline.

“The Chinese truly appreciate it. Diving is getting increasingly popular there and they yearn for beach holidays at East Malaysia and east coast of the peninsular,” AirAsia commercial director Jasmine Lee said.

“Our flights from China give them easy access to out hot spots.”

Likewise, a cooler climate and notable attractions such as UNESCO World Heritage-listed sites Naigu Stone Forest and Suogeyi Village in Kunming are expected to appeal to Malaysians.

Recently, AirAsia announced three other routes Bangkok-Wuhan, Bangkok-Xian and Kuala Lumpur-Nanning, which flies on alternate days Tuesday to Saturday.

Fast-selling tickets were another motivating factor for the airline company to fly into Kunming; Nanning, being a popular business destination for Malaysians, would encourage passengers to connect via Kunming for sight-seeing.

With just four weekly flights to the new destination, impact on earnings is expected to be insignificant.

“Rather, it is the overall frequency and many routes into China that matter. Our audience there makes up half of our top 20 most profitable flights,” she said.

In conjunction with the new destination, AirAsia's flights to other cities in China are bookable from November to January for all-in fares starting from RM199.

The new route to Kunming will be operated on AirAsia's Airbus A320 with a capacity of 180 seats.

Tony Fernandes will over see the Air Asia Group

By Business Times (Koi Kye Lee)

AirAsia Malaysia's new chief executive officer (CEO) will take the airline into another league, said AirAsia Group CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes.

"I am very excited by the announcement and it shows the progressive nature of AirAsia and I think when this person is announced, you can see their career and how far they have come," he told reporters yesterday after witnessing the signing of a Facilitation Fund Grant agreement between Epsom College and the Public-Private Partnership Unit (UKAS) in the Prime Minister's Department.

"Actually, I am dying to announce the name but I have got to keep quiet, so come Monday, I will tell you and I think it is going to be a good day for corporate Malaysia in many ways," Fernandes said.
AirAsia is currently in the process of restructuring its management to accommodate the shift in emphasis on its future growth plans.

It was recently reported that Fernandes will be announcing the key personnel to run the regional structure as well as new AirAsia Malaysia CEO on Monday (June 18).

Business Times reported last week, quoting Fernandes, that the new CEO will be managing the operations in Malaysia, while he will be overseeing all AirAsia operations in Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Japan.

MAS able to become profitable again with oneworld member?

By The Star

By year-end Malaysia Airlines (MAS) would have become a full member of the oneworld alliance and would be able to offer connectivity to about 800 destinations in 150 countries by riding on an expanded oneworld network.

“This membership will be among the significant catalysts that will complement our efforts to win back customers and become a profitable preferred premium carrier as outlined in our Business Plan,'' said MAS group chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya.

Jauhari said the entry into oneworld would enhance its network considerably while providing baseload demand from fellow oneworld members.

“The prospect of being able to offer improved global coverage and connectivity through an expanded network of great airlines to MAS guests is indeed very exciting. Our customers, in particular members of our Enrich loyalty programme, will benefit from increased rewards and recognition while enjoying more seamless air travel options “We look forward to our full membership that will improve our brand awareness among the alliance members' customers and enhance our load factors through additional partner traffic,'' Jauhari said when witnessing the entry of airberlin into oneworld on Tuesday.

Airberlin now serves 162 destinations in 40 countries with a fleet of 170 aircraft and a workforce of 9,200 employees and it became part of oneworld, adding the second biggest airline in Germany and the sixth biggest in the European continent overall to the airline alliance. Austria's NIKI, also a member of the airberlin group, joined oneworld as an affiliate member at the same time.

Other oneworld members include American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Qantas, Royal Jordanian and S7 Airlines, as well as 20 affiliates including Austria's NIKI, American Eagle, Dragonair, LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador and LAN Peru.

Malaysia Billionaire:

Oneworld is just a platform that convenience the internet users to book their air tickets, where you are able to garner all the flight information across the globe provided the participant airliner is a members. I personally think it would not make sure impact on MAS profits.