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Hopeful of launching flights in India in the next two-three months, Air Asia chief Tony Fernandes says the airline would introduce ‘dramatically’ low fares in the country, which would be the cheapest in the market and take air travel to the masses.
Fernandes, who is here for the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting, said AirAsia India is fully prepared from its side for the launch and is waiting for final Government approvals that should come soon and help it begin flights by March-April this year.
“I think we are coming very close and March-April should be the time when we should begin the India operations,” the Malaysia-based airline major AirAsia’s Chief Executive Officer told PTI in an interview here.
AirAsia has partnered Tata group and the Arun Bhatia-led Telstra Tradeplace for AirAsia India, which is looking to run a low-cost passenger airline service in the country.
Fernandes said all preparatory work for the launch of its flights has been completed by the company and it is waiting to “open the sale” of the tickets.
Known to have revolutionised the airline market in Malaysia and some other Asian countries through low-cost airfares, the AirAsia chief said the strategy for India would be to offer the “cheapest” possible tickets.
“We have to be the cheapest and stimulate the market. We have to allow the common man to fly. That is my message to the Indian Government and the State Governments that flying is not only for the rich,” he said.
“What I want to say is that flying is a great economic driver and to get more people flying, we have to reduce the costs. This may be hard for the State Governments, because aviation fuel tax is a good cash cow, but if you see in the medium to long-term, the benefits of flying are huge. You can see the success in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and many other places and we can do the same in India as well,” Fernandes said.
High taxes and other costs have been a major reason for AirAsia planning to start its domestic flights in India with Chennai as a hub and not the bigger centres such as Delhi and Mumbai.
Expressing optimism, Fernandes said some State Governments are open to the idea of lowering air travel costs and more States are looking at this.
When asked whether people should expect dramatically low prices at the time of launch of flights in India, which AirAsia has done in other markets, Fernandes replied in the affirmative.
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