Aeromorning - Aeronautics and Space News - A directory of aerospace companies, events, who's who - Independent Aerospace Insights - Pierre Sparaco Chronicles - Global aerospace 2010 engineering & services - Aerospace companies
AIRASIA CELEBRATES THE INAUGURAL ABU DHABI – KUALA LUMPUR FLIGHT WITH FREE SEATS UP FOR GRABS!
ABU DHABI, UAE: November 24, 2009 – Skytrax ‘World’s Best Low-Cost Airline’, AirAsia officially celebrated its five times weekly direct flights between the two cities of Abu Dhabi – Kuala Lumpur today. The joyous and colorful event was kicked-off with light entertainment at the Yas Island Rotana, Abu Dhabi.
In conjunction with the inaugural flight celebration, AirAsia is offering Free Seats* for the route to guests who book their flights and hotels via GoHoliday; AirAsia’s holiday division at goholiday.airasia.com for selected hotels in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi. The Go Holiday Free Flight offer is available for booking period from 24 to 27 November, 2009 for travel from 1st December, 2009 to 31st January 2010. For more details on the hotel listed for this special offer, kindly log on to goholiday.airasia.com.
The momentous event was witnessed by H.E. Dato’ Yahya Abdul Jabar; Ambassador of Malaysia to the UAE, Mr. Ahmed Hussein, Deputy Director General of Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, Mr. Syed Mohd. Hasrin; the Consulate General of Malaysia in Dubai, Dato’ Seri Kalimullah Hassan; Chairman of AirAsia X, Dato’ Kamarudin Meranun; Deputy Group CEO of AirAsia and Director of AirAsia X, Azran Osman-Rani; Chief Executive Officer of AirAsia X joined by Board Members of AirAsia X, corporate guests, hoteliers and travel agents.
H.E. Dato’ Yahaya Abdul Jabar, Ambassador of Malaysia to the UAE commented, “Today’s launch signifies an important milestone in the field of aviation and tourism to Malaysia as well as the UAE. The launch of 5 times weekly flights to Abu Dhabi from Kuala Lumpur will be mutually beneficial to both Malaysia and Abu Dhabi tourism, as we can expect a considerable increase in both inbound and outbound travel to both destinations, which bodes well for the economy for both Malaysia and the Middle East. Malaysia looks forward to increase business, commercial, and investment ties with the new connection between the two countries. We see an increase in Malaysian companies’ business interest investing in Abu Dhabi. We anticipate their investments in areas of property development, tourism, agro-based industries, biotechnology, food processing and oil and gas.”
Abu Dhabi which is AirAsia X first destination in the Middle East will complement AirAsia X’s future growth in the market besides feeding more traffic to both countries.
With excellent air connectivity between Abu Dhabi and Kuala Lumpur, mutual economic benefits can be expected as AirAsia’s low fares and innovative services will definitely stimulate more travel both inbound and outbound from these two cities. The UAE population could also take advantage of Kuala Lumpur as the connecting gateway to over 130 routes to 70 hot destinations in Asia and beyond.
Mr. Ahmed Hussein, Deputy Director General, Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority lauded the celebration, “Today, AirAsia X is really bringing an X factor to Abu Dhabi – X for Exceptional air links that AirAsia is now providing this destination to better penetrate the Xtremely important Asian market. There is much here to engage the Asian traveller – and indeed the authority is so convinced of the market that it is now running specialist training courses for our industry stakeholders on how to specifically serve this segment of the market which has its own individual needs.”
“With a flying time of only around seven hours to Singapore and Malaysia – the market has much to offer us. AirAsia’s network to the vast market Chinese market will also increase Abu Dhabi’s access to the People’s Republic which we regard of such great potential that the authority now has three offices operating there,” he concluded.
Azran Osman-Rani, Chief Executive Officer of AirAsia X, said, “Abu Dhabi has long been on our network radar and we are very proud to liberalize the market to the world. The demand for the route has been steady with 60% of the load coming from the UAE. This is indeed a clear testament that AirAsia’s low fares have empowered people to fly. Likewise, we are excited to play a key role in promoting Abu Dhabi’s beautiful city and people to the rest of the world. With the convenient ground transportation services available, guests may get to Dubai in less than 60 minutes from the Abu Dhabi International Airport. In fact, our guests from the ASEAN region may use Abu Dhabi as a connecting gateway to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan and many more destinations in the Middle East.”
“We have been promoting Abu Dhabi aggressively to Malaysians, across the ASEAN region and even beyond to destinations such as China, Australia and United Kingdom, in fact we have also included Abu Dhabi in our recent promotion campaign; cross selling the market to other destinations. We are also promoting Abu Dhabi on our website, AirAsia.com. We are certain that the Middle East will definitely leverage from the huge exposure gained from these initiatives. Our current network already covers Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Indochina, Singapore, China, India, Australia and United Kingdom.” concluded Azran
AirAsia’s inaugural flight to Abu Dhabi departed from LCC Terminal on November 23, 2009 with the Airbus A340 aircraft with 286-seater capacity including 30 premium seats. AirAsia guests may enjoy easy payment and booking channels: online at www.airasia.com, via mobile phone at mobile.airasia.com, at sales counters in all airports the airline flies to, sales offices in major cities, and through sales agents.
AirAsia through its one stop travel portal, GoHoliday, at http://goholiday.airasia.com is also offering some great online hotel deals and tour packages where guests may choose their holiday lodgings from over 50,000 hotels to suit their budget.
FLIGHT SCHEDULE KUALA LUMPUR – ABU DHABI
Flights From Departure / Arrival Flight No Frequency
KUALA LUMPUR – ABU DHABI 22:00/01:30 1,4,5,6,7
ABU DHABI – KUALA LUMPUR 02:55/13:55 1,2,5,6,7
Source : AirAsia
From Left to Right- Mr. John Stent; Acting CEO of Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC), Mr. Ahmad Hussein; Deputy Director General of Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA), His Excellency Dato’ Yahaya Abdul Jabar; Ambassador of Malaysia to the UAE, Mr. Azran Osman-Rani; CEO of Air Asia X, Dato’ Seri Kalimullah Hasan; Chairman of AirAsia X; and Dato’ Kamarudin Meranun; Deputy Group CEO of AirAsia and Director of AirAsia X with the magician (middle) during the unveiling of the Free Seats in conjunction with AirAsia’s Inaugural Flight KL-AUH Celebration.
Airports 
AIRASIA CELEBRATES THE INAUGURAL ABU DHABI – KUA
News archive...
