AirAsia considers serving Kunming, Wuhan or Xi'an, a new group of Chinese cities for Asian LCCs

[flee 5]

The AirAsia Group's intention to begin serving mainland China's Kunming, Wuhan or Xi'an would mark the first service to any of those cities from Asia's major low-cost carrier groups: AirAsia, Jetstar and Scoot/Tiger Airways (both part of the Singapore Airlines group). Compared to other mainland destinations served by AirAsia, Jetstar and Tiger, the second-tier cities of Kunming, Wuhan and Xi'an have comparable or higher international capacity. International carriers serving these cities are primarily full service, and all from North or Southeast Asia, with the exception of Air France's service to Wuhan.

 

The AirAsia and Jetstar Groups currently serve the same number of mainland destinations. A new destination from AirAsia would represent the group's eighth mainland destination.

 

AirAsia has announced on Sina Weibo, China's popular microblogging site, that it intends to start service to Kunming, Wuhan or Xi'an and is soliciting feedback for which city to select. The AirAsia Group serves mainland China primarily from Kuala Lumpur via AirAsia Berhard (AirAsia Malaysia) and AirAsia X, although in Mar-2012 Thai AirAsia opened a Bangkok-Chongqing route, the subsidiary's fourth mainland route after Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Shenzhen.

 

Chongqing was a new destination for the AirAsia Group and the only mainland China destination currently only served from Bangkok. Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Shenzhen are served from both Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. The group typically opens new cities first from its Malaysian operations. It did not specify where the potential new service would originate from.

 

Kunming, Wuhan and Xi'an are well within Thai AirAsia's ideal four-hour operating envelope from Bangkok while only Kunming would be within four-hour range on A320s from Kuala Lumpur but Wuhan and Xi'an are well within the ideal eight-hour range of Kuala Lumpur-based A330 subsidiary AirAsia X.

 

AirAsia X had originally envisioned serving four to five cities in China during its first growth phase (with A330s). It currently serves three cities in the mainland (Beijing, Chengdu and Hangzhou) as well as Taipei. If Wuhan or Xi'an are selected it would allow AirAsia X to achieve its initial goal, although it could revise its strategy if opportunities such as slots at Shanghai are presented. Both AirAsia X and Jetstar have been considering Shanghai but securing slots is challenging.

 

The AirAsia and Jetstar groups serve the same number of mainland destinations, with some overlap, although AirAsia is more split between short- and medium/long-haul destinations whereas all but one of Jetstar's points are short-haul. All of Jetstar's points in China are served from Singapore. The SIA Group, through wholly-owned subsidiary Scoot and partially-owned subsidiary Tiger Airways, serves the fewest mainland destinations of the LCC groups.

 

Full analysis here:

http://centreforavia...sian-lccs-78282

Edited July 16, 2012 by flee

[Naim 6]

"AirAsia has announced on Sina Weibo, China's popular microblogging site, that it intends to start service to Kunming, Wuhan or Xi'an and is soliciting feedback for which city to select."

 

YAHOO!!!

[leon t 0]

3k have started service from siN to wuhan a mths back.

[flee 5]

I think that the new routes will probably only be announced once they have received more new aircraft.