Asia’s low cost airlines launches more flights to China

Malaysia's AirAsia Berhad, the region's biggest and most successful budget airline, has launched its service to Tianjin in China and plans to fly to two more Chinese cities, Chengdu and Xian, this year as part of its expansion into that country.
AirAsia would be flying to 10 destinations in China this year, attracting more than two million passengers from China, Malaysia and Southeast Asia, AirAsia group chief executive officer Tony Fernandes was quoted by Bernama News Agency as saying.

Tianjin is the seventh route into China for AirAsia, which has been named the world's best low-cost carrier by Skytrax, the Britain-based consultancy, which conducts research on commercial airlines.

Currently, AirAsia's other routes to China are Macau, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Guilin and Haikou. Located in northeastern China, near the capital Beijing, Tianjin is the country's sixth largest city.

"China is crucial in AirAsia's expansion plans to become a major player in connecting Malaysia and the greater ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region to East Asia," Fernandes said at the launch of the inaugural Kuala Lumpur-Tianjin flight on April 2.