AirAsia X confirms switch to Gatwick from Oct 24

by **hlk** Wed 13 Jul 2011, 13:28

PETALING JAYA: AirAsia X (AAX) yesterday confirmed reports that it would switch its UK base from Stansted to Gatwick Airport from October onwards.

In a press release, the low-cost, long-haul airliner said it would commence flights from Kuala Lumpur Low-Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) to Gatwick Airport, Britain's second-largest airport, from Oct 24 with six weekly flights by mid-December.

StarBiz yesterday already reported that AAX would move its base to Gatwick from late-October for commercial reasons. Quoting sources, it said one of reasons was Gatwick's offer of “irresistible rates” to AAX for landing and parking at the airport.

AAX said in a statement that the switch from Stansted was to maximise commercial opportunities at Gat-wick, and to ultimately drive increas-ed traffic flow between the UK and Malaysia, and also to the various key feeder markets within AirAsia's network in Asia-Pacific. The route would be serviced by AirAsia X's Airbus A340-300, which has 327 seats.
AAX CEO Azran Osman-Rani

“Gatwick Airport was chosen as it demonstrated the passion to work with us in realising our objectives to grow passenger traffic between our hubs in Asia-Pacific and London. With our new home base in Gatwick, guests would be able to further benefit from the airport's destination served, airline diversity, and beyond market connectivity potential with faster and cheaper rail connectivity to the city as compared with Stansted,” said AAX CEO Azran Osman-Rani.

“AirAsia X sees strong potential for the airport as we believe our entry will address the fact that direct service to Asia is significantly underserved from Gatwick.”

“We are seeing more and more Britons choosing to travel long-haul, and in particular to explore countries in South-East Asia,” Gatwick Airport chief executive Stewart Wingate said.

To mark the occasion, AAX would be offering one-way all-in fare from as low as RM1,039 for economy seats and one-way all-in fare from as low as RM3,429 for premium fly flat bed seats through online bookings made from July 13 to 24, 2011, at [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] for the travel period from Feb 6 to June 6 next year.