LONDON – On November 15, the Malaysian based LCC (low-cost carrier), AirAsia, announced that they will be starting a new scheduled service between Sibu in Malaysia to Singapore.
Sibu to Singapore
Inaugurating on December 16, AirAsia will launch its newest scheduled route from Sibu in the Sarawak state of Malaysia to Singapore. The new route will be operated four times per week initially, however, suggestions show that the frequency could increase should the demand warrant it.
Sibu to Singapore is AirAsia’s third route between the Malaysian Sarawak state to Singapore this year, with the other two Sarawak cities of Kuching and Miri that were both inaugurated on April 29 earlier this year. This also means that AirAsia has the largest scope of connectivity between Singapore and the Malaysian Sarawak state than any other serving carrier.
The outbound flight, AK1411 will depart Sibu Airport (SBW) at 13:40 pm every Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. The return flight, AK1410 will depart Singapore Changi Airport (SIN) at 16:00 pm every Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
Both of these services will be operated by AirAsia’s Malaysian mainline carrier, which currently has a fleet of 102 aircraft. This is broken down as 29 Airbus A320neo’s, 70 Airbus A320ceo’s, two Airbus A321neo’s and one Airbus A330-300.
It is expected that this service will be primarily operated by AirAsia’s Airbus A320 fleet, that have a mixture of either an all-economy class configuration of 180 or 186 seats. With the Airbus A321neo’s having an all-economy class configuration of 236 seats.
AirAsia Malaysia is one of eight subsidiaries that make up the entire AirAsia Group, with the other seven carriers being: AirAsia India with 28 aircraft, AirAsia X with 12 aircraft, Indonesia AirAsia with 25 aircraft, Philippines AirAsia with 25 aircraft, Thai AirAsia with 54 aircraft, Thai AirAsia X with eight aircraft.
The group also operates a dedicated cargo subsidiary, Teleport, with just one Boeing 737-800 Freighter at present, being the newest subsidiary to the AirAsia Group.
AirAsia senior comments
AirAsia Malaysia’s Chief Executive Officer, Riad Asmat, has said, “Serving unique and underserved routes is something AirAsia does well in our mission to stimulate air travel through affordable connectivity. We’re thrilled to announce this new route which we are flying for the first time ever, connecting travellers to two immensely popular destinations where we see strong demand for two way travel.”
“AirAsia changed the travel landscape two decades ago, connecting Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak with low, affordable fares, making flying a dream come true for many. Twenty one years later, here we are launching our third international route from Sarawak to Singapore and flying hundreds of thousands of travellers here each year providing a welcome shot in the arm for tourism and economy in the region.”
“This wouldn’t be possible without the incredible support and cooperation of the Sarawak state government and our tourism and industry partners, as well as our dedicated team at AirAsia.”
“This milestone comes at an amazing time for us as exactly two months ago, we resumed operations at Changi Airport’s state-of-the-art Terminal 4 – and now we’re ready to take on more flights! We look forward to working closely with fellow industry players in the near future to make this route a success.”
Overall
For quite a few years the AirAsia Group has struggled, then the Covid pandemic caused a very difficult stir for the group. However, it is great to see them beginning to recover to the well-respected carrier they deserve to be.
It will certainly be interesting to see if AirAsia will be announcing any more new international routes in the near-future and if their fleet growth plan will begin to pick up pace.
