LANGKAWI, 18 March 2015 – AirAsia continued to stamp its presence at the ongoing Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition (LIMA) ’15, as it announced the premier holiday destination of Langkawi as its latest and newest international hub in Malaysia, right after it unveiled the ASEAN-Malaysia Chairmanship aircraft livery this afternoon.

Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, Group CEO of AirAsia said, “We are very excited about this announcement today. We plan to put five planes in Langkawi and generate approximately 1 million to 1.5million passengers through Langkawi very quickly. We will obviously focus on Asean destinations and gradually expand the connectivity to China and India, which are both very strong routes. It is exciting news for the state of Kedah and exciting news for job creation as we will base pilots and cabin crew in Langkawi”.

“By making it a hub, we hope to contribute further to the growth of traffic of this airport. Kudos to the Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak, Dato’ Seri Idris Jala and Minister of Transport, Dato’ Sri Liow Tiong Lai, for having a great vision, and taking proactive steps in making the Asean policy work,” added Fernandes.

Aireen Omar, Chief Executive Officer of AirAsia Berhad said “Today is a big day for us at AirAsia. We have been campaigning for a while now, and we are pleased to know the government and the airport are beginning to see the benefits of Low Cost Carriers and understand that with the right cost structure, we can grow the airport and churn new businesses. We have a great airport here in Langkawi but it is under-utilised. We firmly believe Langkawi have a huge potential to grow as an international hub. We thank MAHB for believing in us and supporting us with a 5-year program to make this a success.

The Minister of Transport of Malaysia, Dato’ Sri Liow Tiong Lai applauded AirAsia following the announcement and commented, “I am very happy with AirAsia’s announcement to turn Langkawi into one of its international base. It has been the Prime Minister’s dream, as well as my own dream to see Langkawi become a full-fledged international airport.”

The Minister added, “I am confident AirAsia has the capabilities to grow Langkawi and turn it into a top holiday destination, even better than Phuket or Bali and eventually make Malaysia one of the favourite tourism destinations on the global map.”

AirAsia has always been committed towards expanding the markets of the destinations that it operates in, and Langkawi is no exception. Langkawi was the airline’s first route to be operated in 2001 and it currently serves 3 routes from the island of Langkawi with 98 flights weekly.

There are currently five AirAsia hubs in Malaysia; namely Kuala Lumpur, Kuching, Johor Bahru, Penang and Kota Kinabalu. Langkawi will be AirAsia’s sixth international hub in Malaysia.