AirAsia targets Indian travellers as China remains grounded

Low-cost Malaysian airline AirAsia is turning to India for international travellers after China cut itself off from the rest of the world.

AirAsia, which mostly targets the Southeast Asian market, is experiencing a surge in business from Indian travellers visiting Indonesia and Malaysia. This comes after China, historically one of Thailand’s prime tourism markets, cut itself off from travel with a zero Covid-19 policy.

Indian travellers have taken to the skies since the government reinstated international flights in March, after 2 years of strict regulations due to the pandemic. AirAsia, which had around 90 flights available per day before the coronavirus outbreak, now only has a few planes available, according to AirAsia Malaysia Chief Executive Officer Riad Asmat, who was at the Aviation Festival Asia in Singapore earlier this week.

“India is definitely a very, very important market. China, I’m not saying it’s not, but at the current state, we have to work around what we have. We manage what we have as best as we can create capacity that is sufficient for us to sustain our business, and in the meantime, work to get as many aircraft up in the air again.”

SOURCE: Bangkok Post