Air Asia Flights to USA Not Far Away

[Vanhelsing]

AirAsia have tried long-haul before with flights to London and Paris, if I recall correctly, with those routes short lived.

The long-haul arm of Malaysian low cost carrier AirAsia could introduce flights to the west coast of the United States "not too far away" from now, the airline's chief executive Tony Fernandes told CNBC on Thursday.

Fernandes, speaking at the sidelines of the World Economic Forum's ASEAN meeting in Cambodia, was responding to CNBC's question on whether flights to the U.S. West Coast is in the carrier's expansion plans.

"Absolutely, I had a fantastic trip to Los Angeles and I would imagine that's not too far away as well," he said.

 

[Jaime C]

Air Asia is already scheduled to fly to the USA, starting next month, to Hawaii.

 

[Davita]

Air Asia's long-haul flights to USA license is for Air Asia X and are initially starting with a flight to Hawaii. I don't think there are plans to use Air Asia Indonesia for those long-haul flights so there may not be much benefit to passengers living in Indonesia. They are restarting KL-London and Bangkok-Frankfurt when they get delivery of more advanced aircraft. KL-London was cancelled 5 years ago due to cost of fuel and taxes.

 

[ChrisTex]

Is the flight to Hawaii something like this?

X(can't remember the starting point) to Tokyo to Hawaii

I thought I read that it wasn't a direct flight.

 

[Jaime C]

Is the flight to Hawaii something like this?

X(can't remember the starting point) to Tokyo to Hawaii

I thought I read that it wasn't a direct flight.

Yes, it's through Osaka. I'd guess primarily because the Japan-Hawaii market is pretty strong.

I believe they are currently flying the A330. Perhaps flying from KUL would stretch it too close, too. 6600 km from Osaka, almost 11,000 km from KUL.

 

[tokektokek]

AirAsia have tried long-haul before with flights to London and Paris, if I recall correctly, with those routes short lived.

Yes, I am remember that. Was a shame they stopped the routes as offered great value and encouraged more competition from other airlines, which meant cheaper prices for all.

Of course, this is the reason they stopped the route - I remember Malaysia Airlines etc being a lot cheaper and having a lot more promotions in order to compete. Obviously when choosing between a 5 star airline and a no frills airline with similar prices, people would choose the former. Air Asia just weren't getting the amount of customers they needed to make the routes viable. After they were gone the other airlines had less competition and so didn't need to offer such low prices anymore - I noticed as I was flying from London to Bali every 3 months at that time.

I can see the same thing happening with other airlines flying to the US. I would love to see Air Asia flying to Europe again and the US though.

 

[ChrisTex]

Yes, it's through Osaka. I'd guess primarily because the Japan-Hawaii market is pretty strong.

I believe they are currently flying the A330. Perhaps flying from KUL would stretch it too close, too. 6600 km from Osaka, almost 11,000 km from KUL.

I wonder if Air Asia would do a Jakarta/Bali to Osaka to Hawaii in the future. Maybe wait to see how the Osaka to Hawaii works out.

 

[Davita]

I think some of you have blinkers...there is NO talk of Air Asia flying from Jakarta/Bali to USA...those flights to USA are Air Asia 'X' from KL.
Air Asia 'Indonesia' doesn't have a license to fly to USA.

 

[Asun]

I wonder how much cheaper AirAsia 'X' flight to USA can get. Currently one can get tickets from West Coast USA to HK, Taiwan, Manila, Bangkok, SIngapore, etc for less than $600 return if you time it right. There is even direct flight from SF to SIN offered by SQ and United for around $700.

 

[Jaime C]

I think some of you have blinkers...there is NO talk of Air Asia flying from Jakarta/Bali to USA...those flights to USA are Air Asia 'X' from KL.
Air Asia 'Indonesia' doesn't have a license to fly to USA.

Actually it's not from KUL, but Osaka. Might be an aircraft range issue, though.

I saw one way flights from Osaka for $130. Plus add on some taxes and fees, I'm sure.

As @ChrisTex mentioned, there are lots of cheapish RT fares from the US west coast to CGK/SIN/KUL. I often see $500-550.

I booked American Airlines/Cathay Pacific/Japan Airlines flights for mid summer, returning right before Thanksgiving from a US second tier city for under $900 each. It costs $500-700 to fly coach domestic in the US around major holidays. It's usually more expensive originating in Asia.

 

[Davita]

My point was those projected Air Asia X flights to Hawaii originate from Malaysia and not Indonesia.
You and Asun are correct,....trans-pacific fares by major carriers are already low so a budget airline, trying to capture some of that market, had better have sharp pencils.

Most of our visitors to JKT/DPS coming from the US/Canada west-coast find Eva Air, transiting Taipei, as the best and generally cheapest.

I'm lucky and use my airline retiree discount on that route....business class return under US$1,000 each.
However, if the flight is full, and someone has a ticket for the same flight, even economy fare, they bump us for that passenger and upgrade someone to our seats.....we go home, or to an airport motel, and wait for the next flight.
Once...we were bumped on YVR-HKG route so many times that the cleaning people at the airport thought my Indonesian wife worked there. The shuttle-bus driver to the motel asked if I could drive his shift and he'd for-go his tips.....as I had already tipped him for each time he shuttled us I asked for a refund. He was a Serbian immigrant....not gonna happen.