Published on : Tuesday, August 26, 2014
AirAsia says it is “leading the charge in the global airfare war” with its “Megasale” fares. The Malaysian airline is presenting flights from as little as $13 in the midst of the challenging aviation situation in the wake of its two major disasters this year.
The AirAsia Mega sale runs until August 31, with the fares valid for travel from March 1 to October 24, 2015.
The Kuala Lumpur based economical airline is offering sale fares from Australia to the Malaysian capital from $159, with onward flights starting from just $13 and flights from Australia to Bali start at $99.
The loss of flight MH370 in March, followed by last month’s loss of MH17, have affected not only Malaysia Airlines but Malaysian tourism overall, particularly tourist arrivals from China. The sale comes as images of harshly empty Malaysia Airlines flights circulate online and as the distressed airline boosted the commission its offering travel agents in Australia.
Announcing the sale, commercial head of Australia of AirAsia and New Zealand Stuart Myerscough said with increased capacity between Asia and Australia and strong airline competition, there had never been a better time to fly internationally.
According to Mr. Myerscough it was not just Malaysia and other South-East Asian destinations that appealed to Australian travellers.
AirAsia announced a six fold increase in second-quarter net profit last week, despite what it called a “challenging” aviation environment. Net profit was 367.2 million ringgit ($115 million), up from 58.3 million ringgit in the same quarter of 2013. It said revenue also grew 5 percent to 1.31 billion ringgit as passenger numbers increased slightly. The leap was mostly due to foreign exchange gains on borrowings according to AirAsia.
AirAsia’s success over the years has come at the cost of national flag carrier Malaysia Airlines. The company has been hit by the double disasters of MH370 and MH17 this year, compounding years of fiscal losses.
The Malaysia Airlines tragedies do not appear to have turned Australians off visiting the country, with Tourism Malaysia reporting a 21.6 per cent jump in the number of Australians visiting between January and April, compared with the same months in 2013.
Tags: airasia
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