AirAsia
AirAsia is low cost airline based in Malaysia. Originally founded by government-owned conglomerate DRB-Hicom, the heavily indebted airline was purchased by former Time Warner executive Tony Fernandes's company Tune Air Sdn Bhd for the symbolic sum of one ringgit on December 2nd, 2001. Fernandes proceeded to engineer a remarkable turnaround, turning a profit in 2002 and launching new routes from its hub in Kuala Lumpur International Airport at breakneck speed, undercutting former monopoly operator Malaysia Airlines with promotional fares as low as RM10 (US $2.50).
In 2003, AirAsia opened a second hub at Senai Airport in Johor Bahru near Singapore and launched its first international flights to Thailand. AirAsia has since started a Thai subsidiary, added Singapore itself to the destination list, and started flights to Indonesia. As on December 2004, AirAsia and its associated companies operated twenty-six Boeing 737-300.
Flights to Macau started in June 2004.
In December 2004, AirAsia's Indonesian associated company AWAIR was relaunched with Jakarta as its hub. AirAsia also ordered 40 Airbus A320 to replace their ageing Boeing 737-300 fleet, the first Airbus A320 is expected to arrive in January 2006.
Destinations
IATA Code
Air Asia uses the IATA designator code AK. Thai associate company, Thai AirAsia uses FD. Indonesian associate company, AWAIR uses QZ.
External links