The carrier said last week that its four weekly services to Orly International Airport in Paris from its Kuala Lumpur hub would begin on February 14, its second air route between Europe and the Malaysian capital after London.

The Kuala Lumpur-Paris service will be on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, with promotional one-way all in fare from 99 euro from Kuala Lumpur to Paris for the bookings made from Monday to November 24 for travel from February 14 to November 10, 2011.

According to the winter schedule, as AirAsia X's services on Wednesdays and Sundays depart from Kuala Lumpur at 1:05 a.m. and arrive in Paris 7:45 in the morning, they will be well connected to those flights from Vietnam that AirAsia has currently.

Every day, AirAsia's flights from Hanoi will arrive at Kuala Lumpur International Airport's Low Cost Carrier Terminal at 1:30 p.m. and from HCM City at 1:25 p.m., 7 p.m. and 10:35 p.m. Therefore, the services from this economic hub of Vietnam will offer more options and better connectivity with the carrier's flights to Paris on Wednesdays and Sundays.

The two-way all in fare starts from more than $200 for the Hanoi-Kuala Lumpur flight and more than $140 for the HCM City-Kuala Lumpur service for travel in February. With these rates, AirAsia's new route to Paris will make travel between Asia and Europe much more affordable than traditional airlines.

"AirAsia X's Paris-Kuala Lumpur route is the realisation of one of its long-held ambition to open up yet another affordable access between Malaysia and Europe for both Asean and European communities," AirAsia Group CEO and AirAsia X founder Tony Fernandes said in a statement.

"Being a truly Asean airline, we are committed to promoting tourism and travel throughout and beyond that region. This new route will benefit everyone, enabling magnificent holidays in beautiful locations, encouraging economic and tourism activity," he added.

AirAsia now operate the Airbus A320 for its flights between Vietnam and Kuala Lumpur while AirAsia X uses the Airbus A340 aircraft with 327-passenger capacity including 18 Premium seats to service the Kuala Lumpur-Paris route.

AirAsia X flies to destinations with flight duration of more than four hours from Kuala Lumpur, complementing the existing AirAsia network spanning more than 76 destinations throughout Asean, China and India. Via its hubs in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, AirAsia provides services to Langkawi, Kota Kinabalu, Phuket, Borneo, Bali, Seam Reap, Phnom Penh, Hanoi and HCM City, and other destinations in Asia.

AirAsia X has transported more than two million passengers over the past three years to Australia, China, Taiwan, Iran, Korea, India and the UK. This brings the number of passengers on the planes of AirAsia Group to over 100 million passengers in less than 10 years of its operations.

Currently, Vietnam Airlines and Air France conduct non-stop Paris-Vietnam flights while the other full-serviced carriers including Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways International serve the routes between Vietnam and Paris via their hubs in Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok.

The Saigon Times Daily - November 25, 2010