AirAsia Could Return to Indian Skies

If rumours doing the rounds in India are indeed true then budget travellers with a liking for tickets on cheap flights have a reason to rejoice!

Reports suggest Malaysia’s budget airline, AirAsia is all eager to restart its flights to India as soon as possible. The airline is, reportedly, hoping to target the potentially profitable short-haul international routes in the region. Budget travellers will distinctly remember that AirAsia decided to call off its services to India some time ago.

While no official source is willing to validate the story, sources in the aviation industry insist that the Malaysian carrier is eager for a return to India skies. It is believed that the scrapping of bilateral landing rights, which denote exchange of landing rights for carriers of respective countries, has been the major push for AirAsia! The dismantling of bilateral landing rights means it is not compulsory for Air India to operate flights to Malaysia if AirAsia operates cheap flights to India.

Sources, who sought anonymity, say bilateral landing rights “constrained” AirAsia and now with the rule being gone, AirAsia has already applied for Indian landing rights. The airline is likely to restart India operations soon, if these reports are to be taken seriously.

The carrier will ply narrow-bodied aircraft like Boeing 737 or Airbus A320 in lieu of the A330 which was used by the airline in its earlier stint in India.

Big planes with more number of seats are more difficult to fill as compared to smaller planes with comparatively lesser number of seats, says the source.

Reference