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Report from The STAR dated Friday 21 July 2006 :-

Budget airline to link Kuching and Bangkok

KUCHING: Low-cost carrier AirAsia, which has made Kuching its new hub, is expected to connect this city with Bangkok early next year.

Its group chief executive officer Datuk Tony Fernandes said the airline's recently-launched Kota Kinabalu-Bangkok service was doing very well.

He said AirAsia also planned to establish a Kuching-Macau direct service, which would tap travellers from Guangzhou, China.

“We also hope to start a Kuching-Brunei service soon,” he told reporters after the launch of AirAsia’s Kuching hub at Merdeka Palace yesterday.

The Kuching hub, which will become fully operational next Tuesday, will service four destinations – Bintulu, Miri, Sibu and Kota Kinabalu. AirAsia also flies between here and Johor Baru, and will include Penang as another destination later.

State Urban Development and Tourism Minister Datuk Wong Soon Koh officially opened the hub.

Fernandes said AirAsia would start its Kuching-Mulu service in October.

He said there was a possibility that AirAsia would establish a Kuching-Perth service in the future, as he was sure that this sector would be profitable.

Malaysia Airlines has recently terminated its Kuching-Perth, Kuching-Sydney and Kuching-Frankfurt services under a domestic rationalisation exercise.

Fly Asian Xpress (FAX), a subsidiary of Tune Air (holding company of AirAsia), will take over the rural air services from MAS from Aug 1.

FAX will operate a fleet of six Fokker aircraft and five Twin-Otter aircraft between towns in the state.

Fernandes said AirAsia now operated a fleet of 43 aircraft, and two would be based here, rising to five by 2010.

AirAsia expects to fly 1.6 million passengers to and from Sarawak this year, and to increase the number to 2.65 million next year.
--- KatoeyNewsNewtork