Malaysian low-cost carrier (LCC) AirAsia will launch new schedules to two new secondary hubs from mid-July.
The first is a 4X-weekly service from Kuala Lumpur’s KLIA2 to U-Tapao Airport on the eastern Bay of Thailand, which serves rapidly expanding holiday destination Pattaya. The second is from Singapore’s neighboring Johor Bahru to Bangkok’s Don Mueang LCC hub.
Subsidiary LCC Thai AirAsia has also announced plans to start international flights from U-Tapao by the end of the year, and to potentially make the airport its new connecting hub for flights to North Asia, including China.
“We already have a strong base in China and [Chinese tourists] like coming to Pattaya for holidays, so it makes sense for us to set up a [new] air link at U-Tapao,” Thai AirAsia commercial director Santisuk Klongchaiya said. The carrier has operated principally out of Bangkok’s Don Mueang LCC airport.
The new service from Johor Bahru to Bangkok also fits with AirAsia’s regional hub-based expansion pattern, which saw the selection of Langkawi as its most recent new Malaysian route hub for the region.
“Johor Bahru is the third largest city in Malaysia with tremendous traveling demand,” AirAsia Head of Commercial Spencer Lee said. He added the new schedule would help boost international traffic to Thailand, in addition to making connections to existing domestic routes to secondary Malaysian destinations such as Miri, Medan, Penang and Kota Kinabalu.
The new service would also offer passengers a direct south Malaysia-Bangkok service without having to transit through Kuala Lumpur or commute to Singapore as before, he said.