Updated: Air Asia X expands “Fly Thru” service

Air Asia X has launched 46 new “Fly-Thru” connections across its network. The Fly-Thru service means that passengers connecting via the carrier’s base in Kuala Lumpur will no longer have to go through immigration, collect their baggage or re-check in for their onward flight. Instead, they will be able to proceed to the Fly-Thru transfer hall at the new KLIA2 terminal where they will be issued a second boarding pass, and baggage will automatically be sent through to the final destination. The new Fly-Thru routes are:

No	Depart from	To
1	Adelaide	Bandung
2	Melbourne	Yogyakarta
3	Gold Coast	Siem Reap
4	Perth	Yogyakarta & Chiang Mai
5	Sydney	Siem Reap & Macau
6	Hangzhou	Brunei, Rangoon, Ho Chi Minh City
7	Beijing	Bandung
8	Shanghai-Pudong	Yogyakarta
9	Osaka	Lombok & Yogyakarta
10	Tokyo (Haneda)	Ho Chi Minh City
11	Kathmandu	Siem Reap, Brunei, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Lombok, Krabi, Phuket, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City
12	Jeddah	Melbourne, Perth, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Penang, Macau, Krabi, Phuket & Ho Chi Minh City
13	Busan	Bandung
14	Colombo	Guangzhou, Bandung, Jakarta, Bali, Medan, Surabaya, Kota Kinabalu, Penang, Phuket & Ho Chi Minh City
15	Taipei-Taoyuan	Brunei, Kolkata & Yogyakarta

  Azran Osman-Rani, chief executive of Air Asia X said, “Air Asia X’s Fly-Thru guests increased by four per cent (Q1, 2014) from 43 per cent (Q1, 2013) and with the new connections, we hope that it will contribute to a higher number of Fly-Thru guests at the newly launched klia2 terminal in the following months to come.” While full-service carriers often offer passengers the ability to connect conveniently to their next flight, low-cost carriers usually only fly point to point. In 2011, Air Asia X introduced the Fly-Thru service on selected routes and has since been increasing its number of multi-leg itineraries. When asked about the reason why the carrier had not introduced its Fly-Thru service to all connecting routes, a spokeswoman at Air Asia X said: "We do not offer Fly-Thru services to all our routes due to a couple of reasons. The first being the flight connecting time which may not be within the 90 minutes to six hour window (passengers are not allowed to wait in transfer hall more then six hours). Besides that, there are also facility limitations at some stations. In order to have Fly-Thru, the connecting station will need to have a certain facility and approval as well. Last but not least, we will also need to choose connecting flights that make sense commercially (history of high connecting traffic vs only a small minority connecting)." For more information, visit www.airasia.com Clement Huang