By being an international hub, he said AirAsia would operate direct flights between the Asean capitals and eventually China and India, to Langkawi.
AirAsia plans to make the Langkawi airport its next international hub by generating at least one million passengers.
AirAsia Group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said the plan is expected to take off in four months time with the airline deploying more crew and pilots to be based in Langkawi.
“We estimate that we can put five planes here and generate between a million and 1.5 million passengers very quickly, something unheard of in Langkawi before,” he added.
He told reporters this after launching the Malaysian Chairmanship of Asean livery on its aircraft by Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai in Langkawi today.
By being an international hub, he said AirAsia would operate direct flights between the Asean capitals and eventually China and India, to Langkawi.
At present the airline only operated one international direct flight, which is between Singapore and Langkawi.
Fernandes said AirAsia had been working for a long time to realise the “dream” of making Langkawi an international hub and appreciated the government’s understanding in allowing the airline to proceed with the plan.
“The government is beginning to see that with the right cost structure, we can build new businesses,” he added.
Besides Langkawi, he said Malaysia had a number of potential airports that could generate higher international traffic, as long as the charges imposed were appropriate.
“Melaka or Kuching (airports) can all have many more international flights. International flights don’t have to go through KLIA2 alone. We have great airports but they are not full. Let use them and it will be a big step forward for Malaysia,” he added. – Bernama, March 18, 2015.
