Airasia upbeat on outlook, affliates fuel growth

AirAsia Bhd is upbeat on its outlook for the second half of this year riding on the growth of its affiliates, as well as, new routes in the pipeline, said Chief Executive Officer Aireen Omar.

"We are working together with our affiliates to expand in other destinations. Our sister companies are reaching out to markets where we cannot because it is not within our four-hour radius.

"These affiliates will then bring these volumes to Kuala Lumpur. We see a lot of opportunity in this," she told reporters at AisAsia's breaking of fast event on Monday night.

The bright prospects was also attributed to AirAsia's new operations at the new low-cost carrier terminal, klia2, which provided the airlines with additional capacity.

Aireen said that "quite a handful of routes" were in the pipeline, to be launched later this year, which could possibly further improve flight connections.

She said the Asean Open Skies 2015 also fueled her optimism towards the aviation industry given the agreement's nature of liberalising air transport in the region.

Asean member countries identified a 2015 deadline to establish the policy, by the time the proposed Asean Economic Community (AEC) takes effect.

"AirAsia is optimistic on the Asean open skies agreement because there are a lot of opportunities there that we can take advantage of.

"However, we hope airport authorities in different countries will facilitate the growth, in terms of providing the right infrastructure and the right kind of partnership, so that the airline can bring the necessary traffic volume," she added.