By Singh, Published on June 27th, 2023 in News
After more then about 3 years of suspension of operations from the Northern Indian city of Amritsar, Air Asia Group’s long-haul low-cost carrier, Air Asia X is now all set to resume non-stop services between Kuala Lumpur and Amritsar.
Starting September 3rd 2023, Air Asia X will resume 4x weekly non-stop A330-300 services between Kuala Lumpur and Amritsar.
The airline first commenced operations from Amritsar in the year 2018, operating upto 5x weekly non-stop A330-300 services to Kuala Lumpur untill March 2020.
The return of the airline in Amritsar’s international market represents the potential that this market upholds, especially when the airline is focusing upon rebuilding it’s network sustainably and profitably.
Air Asia X will be primarily focusing on Amritsar’s Australia market, benefiting from a large feeder traffic for it’s routes to Sydney, Melbourne, Perth & Gold Cost in Australia, along with Auckland in New Zealand.
Pre-Covid, Scoot, Air Asia X and Batik Air operated about 1,200 daily seats between Amritsar and South-East Asia and Australia via there hubs of Singapore and Kuala Lumpur respectively.
While Scoot resumed it’s services from Amritsar in February 2022 and Batik Air in September 2022, the capacity of this market was down by over 48% with the absence of Air Asia X.
With the re-entry of Air Asia X, both Scoot and Batik Air will face a direct competition from the airline, especially for the Australian traffic.
This enhanced capacity from Amritsar will also significantly impact Punjab’s Australia traffic leakage to Delhi, which may also impact Air India’s non-stop services to Sydney & Melbourne.
Over 9 airlines will now be operating in Amritsar’s international market, including, Air India, Air India Express, IndiGo, SpiceJet, Qatar Airways, Scoot, Batik Air and Neos Airlines.
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