MELBOURNE (Australia), Nov 2 ― AirAsia Aviation Group's medium-haul affiliate airline AirAsia X Bhd plans to increase flight frequencies to both Australia and New Zealand to seven flights per week by the first quarter of next year, reflecting its bullish outlook on its operations there.

AirAsia X Malaysia chief executive officer (CEO) Benyamin Ismail said the carrier currently operates three direct flights weekly from Kuala Lumpur to Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Auckland.

"We have to service our aircraft back into business after the last two years. So we will align it (frequency) right when the aircraft is coming after service.

"For Australia, we delayed it a bit because of the visa issues for Malaysians, but now that the process has improved quite a bit, we feel comfortable that we can sell tickets. Looking at the forward (passenger) loads, it looks strong,” he said.

He was speaking to Malaysian reporters after celebrating the resumption of AAX’s flight to Melbourne today. The inaugural flight from Kuala Lumpur touched down at 6.17am ― 13 minutes earlier than scheduled ― and departed from Melbourne at 7.40am.

With strong passenger loads on both flights, the new services signal a sharp rebound in demand for low-cost mid-range air travel, delivering a welcome boost to both Australian and Malaysian tourism.

In terms of capacity, Benyamin said the Australian and New Zealand markets are expected to hit 50 per cent of the pre-pandemic levels by December.

He added that the insufficient number of aircraft at present would slow down the recovery journey.

AAX currently operates six aircraft, and this is likely to be increased to eight by year-end and 13 by April 2023.

"The key thing for us right now is to bring back (AAX’s fleet size) to 24 aircraft (the pre-pandemic level). We’re sourcing. Hopefully we will get that completed in the next few months and then we can get ready for (new) deliveries to come through,” he said.

The AirAsia group has a current fleet size of 205 and expects to increase that to 300 planes over the next five years. It will take delivery of the 362 Airbus 321neo aircraft it has ordered starting from 2024.

Pre-pandemic, AAX contributed 45 per cent of the market share for flights between Australia and Malaysia, with up to 92 flights weekly to four destinations.

Following the recent return to Sydney and with the resumption of services to Melbourne and Perth this week, AAX will reconnect a total of 24 flights weekly to three key destinations in Australia.

Also present at the event were the newly appointed AAX chairman Tunku Datuk Mahmood Fawzy, Melbourne Airport CEO Lorie Argus and Visit Victoria CEO Brendan McClements.

AAX is also celebrating the recommencement of services from Kuala Lumpur to Auckland, New Zealand (NZ) via Sydney which touches down today at 5.20pm local NZ time, and will welcome the inaugural flight from Auckland to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2) which arrives at 3.35am local time. ― Bernama