Solutions needed, says AirAsia X

Solutions needed, says AirAsia X
By admin


Emerging infrastructure problems in Australia’s aviation sector could stand in the way of it fulfilling its potential, according to the boss of AirAsia X, as he outlined plans for a major Australian expansion.

Chief executive Azran Osman-Rani highlighted parking bay constraints, time slots and limitations with security and border control as obstacles to the low cost carrier’s local growth.

Such problems will increasingly create a “bottleneck” which would see much of the “potential demand” go unfulfilled, he told delegates at an aviation conference in Sydney yesterday.

Nonetheless, he was hopeful solutions could be found to enable the carrier to deploy ”significant” additional capacity in Australia, in line with its plans to “more than double” its fleet in 2013/14.

Creating a model that would enable the carrier to up its daily services was also a priority, with Osman-Rani describing multiple frequences as the key to future growth.

“Adding a second daily capacity is a case of one plus one equals more than two because it unlocks a lot more connectivity to many other Asia destinations,” he said. With only one daily flight running from a number of destinations, connecting passengers could be forced to stay overnight.

“That’s usually not something you would consider unless you’re incredibly price sensitive,” he said.

But he admitted turning wide-bodied planes around in a limited amount of time would be challenge.

“It hasn’t been something that the airports have experienced a lot – a big wide-bodied plane coming and leaving immediately,” he said.

“One way or another, airports here will have to deal with some of the emerging infrastructure problems.”

The airline is just “scratching the surface” of Australia which still has a low penetration of international low cost traffic, with the majority of it going across the Tasman.
 

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