TokyoTomo Travel Guide

Japan finally will see the arrival of a true low-cost carrier happening. Malaysian’s budget carrier AirAsia Group has said that it plans to launch its first flights serving Japan by the end of the year. The flight will be operated by AirAsia X, the long-distance arm of AirAsia, to serve between Kuala Lumpur’s new Low-Cost Terminal in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s capital and Tokyo Haneda Airport, at a frequency of 3 flights weekly. It hopes to increase the frequency making it a daily service. The Japanese government has already allotted landing and takeoff slots to AirAsia X at Haneda airport, soon to open its International terminal building end of the year.

The aircraft type will be an Airbus A330 aircraft, a mid-size fleet with good fuel efficiency, and commonly used among low-cost carriers. Airfare can go as low as 14,000yen one-way with introductory airfare planning at 2500yen to catch the eyes of the discerning Japanese travellers. In addition, AirAsia will not implement the fuel surcharge to appeal to its customers. Japanese are usually weary of low priced goods and are doubtful if the service offered will be up to the basic. However, for many who has travelled with AirAsia before would know that even as an LCC it is comparable to some full-fledge carriers, and could even fair better in service standards. It has won numerous service awards and received accolades from key travel industries worldwide. AirAsia saw its passenger traffic jump year on year, even overtook asia’s powerhouse, Singapore Airlines, to become the biggest carrier in Southeast Asia.

Just like any other low-cost carriers, complimentary meal service will not be served and meals and beverages will be sold instead. Fees will be charged for bringing any extra luggage exceeding the 7kg allowance for carry-on. And stripping its costs to the bare minimum, reservations can only be made online and thus credit card is required to make a purchase. As such there won’t be phone booking available as it will inflate the running costs.

AirAsia is also planning to introduce flights to New Chitose Airport(CTS) in Sapporo, Kansai International Airport(KIX) in Osaka and Fukuoka International Airport(FUK). Unfortunately, it has left out the newly opened Ibaraki Airport, only opened last month and is trying hard to win airlines to using its airport.

Meanwhile, AirAsia X is also tipped to receive the rights to fly to Seoul and other cities soon. It will officially start flying to Mumbai in May and New Delhi in August.

Amadeus announced on September 10 that it has formed a partnership with AirAsia (AK) enabling the Amadeus-subscribing travel agencies to book flights for the customers on the AK Group flights. The introduction of “Ticketless Access,” which is the Amadeus technology solution for LCCs (low cost carriers), has achieved its implementation by AirAsia and all its subsidiaries including its long-haul affiliate, AirAsia X (D7) presently planning its service to Japan. The Amadeus Ticketless Access enables more than 102,200 travel agencies worldwide using Amadeus GDS to book the respective AK group flights in the same way as the system allows for a full-service airline.

As it has been observed, LCCs, in many cases, decline to participate in a GDS which levies booking transaction fee on part of airlines in order to slash costs. By introducing a global distribution system, however, LCCs will enjoy benefits of not only enhancing the market diversification but also attracting new travel demand including business traffic through GDS- subscribing travel agencies. At the same time, the GDS enables travel agencies to provide more flexibilities and choices to their customers who are particularly budget-conscious. The number of Japanese business travelers flying LCCs is not available for statistics in the Japan market. According to AirAsia, it is receiving positive responses from overseas markets, particularly from Europe.

For your information, AirAsia had first joined hands with Galileo back in January 2006 in a drive to boost its distribution channel

Source: Travel Vision

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