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HOME arrow Travel and Transport arrow Stansted could soon offer flights to Oz for under five hundred pounds arrow Registration
Stansted could soon offer flights to Oz for under five hundred pounds
Written by Ben Fountain   
Wednesday, 26 March 2008
The Hoddle Grid, Melbourne's original Central Business District
The Hoddle Grid, Melbourne's original Central Business District
Stansted airport could soon have two new prime long-haul routes - to Kuala Lumpur and Melbourne - as part of plans unveiled by low-cost long-haul carrier, AirAsia X.
AirAsia X, whose shareholders include the Virgin Group and former Air Canada CEO and chairman, Robert Milton, launched its first long-haul low-cost flights in November last year and now operates two routes from Malaysia, to Australia and China.

Now the company says it aims to launch a new budget point-to-point service between Stansted and Melbourn - via Kuala Lumpur - for a total price of under £500 by the end of 2008.

A spokesman for Stansted confirmed that the Essex airport was in "close and regular contact with AirAsia X" and that it was "very, very keen" to close the deal on the new routes.

While the new service would dramatically improve Stansted's long-haul network in one fell swoop, there are still a number of issues that need to be resolved before it becomes a reality.

The most pressing of which is the need for AirAsia X to secure suitable aircraft to service the route. It is understood that the Malaysian airline's preference for the Stansted route is to lease two Airbus A340s - a tough ask within the nine month time frame they have said they are working to.

And with Manchester Airport also in the reckoning for the new route, the type of aircraft AirASia X can lay it hands on may still determine the airport it choses.

Air AsiaX chief executive Azran Osman-Rani told aviation website, Peanuts.aero that the widebody lease market was "very tight at the moment,"  qualifying the comment with his hope that the weakening US economy and high fuel prices might make it easier to secure a deal on larger aircraft like the A340. "We can only finalise the airport once we can confirm availability for dedicated aircraft for this route," he said.

The spokesman for Stansted said: "As far as the airport is concerned it is a case of the sooner better for this point to point route. While we understand that there are still a number of practicalities to be resolved we hope that our proximity to the world's financial capital in London - not to mention its hosting of the Olympic Games in 2012 and the East of England business community will lead AirAsia X to pick Stansted."

AirAsia X aims to cover destinations which are more than four hours in flight duration from Kuala Lumpur, complementing AirAsia's existing short-haul low-cost network and offering daily point-to-point frequencies to popular destinations in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Europe.


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