LONDON – Britain’s first long-haul, no-frills flight to Asia will take off from Stansted today at 5.30pm (1.30am tomorrow, Malaysian time), courtesy of AirAsia X. Passengers will spend 12 hours in seats that are smaller than on other planes, have less legroom, and do not recline. If they want to watch an in-flight movie, they will have to pay.
It is like a Ryanair flight – just one that lasts much longer. However Tony Fernandes, the flamboyant entrepreneur behind the airline, said no one was complaining. The reason: about a fifth of the passengers are only paying £99 for the flight to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, with the average fare a dirt-cheap £175, compared with a typical cost of about £500.
Fernandes admitted the five-day-a-week service would not be luxurious, but said this observation missed the point.
“As a backpacker I sat for 12 hours on a bus,” he said. “We are trying to stimulate a new market.”
Many have tried, and failed, to make low-budget, long-haul air travel profitable. The start of the new low-cost airline comes at a challenging time for the industry, which is in the grip of a global recession and a slump in demand.
“There is a fine line between brilliance and stupidity,” Fernandes said, but he remained undaunted. “I have always been a contrarian. I bought AirAsia for one ringgit [about 20p] three days after 9/11. Every calamity known to mankind has happened since I came here – record oil prices, SARS, bird flu, terrorist attacks, a tsunami.”
AirAsia’s low-cost, long-haul subsidiary AirAsia X, in which Richard Branson’s Virgin Group holds a 20% stake, already runs flights from Kuala Lumpur to Australia and China. Fernandes said his Stansted gamble had a better chance of success because travellers could fly on to these other destinations from Kuala Lumpur with his airline.
He said that three passengers due on the first flight from Kuala Lumpur to Stansted tomorrow had also flown with AirAsia X from Melbourne.
He admitted that encouraging low-cost, long-haul travel was not good for the environment, but argued that AirAsia X’s streamlined operation had a better record than most.
“We have a younger [more fuel-efficient] fleet, we fit more passengers on board than anyone else. We do make an effort but we can’t run away from the fact that there are emissions.”
Airline seats are typically more than 16 inches wide, but AirAsia X’s are just 15.8 inches. The pitch between rows of seats is a snug 30 inches, compared to about 32 inches on other planes. The seats do not recline, but there is a “slide-down facility” instead, allowing passengers to stretch out.
There is no business class, but passengers can pay an “XL supplement” for a larger seat. Meals, costing about £7, also have to be ordered before the flight to cut down on the amount of catering equipment which has to be taken on board.
Fernandes saids he admired the efficiency of Ryanair, but insisted AirAsia X was “much nicer”.
“It doesn’t cost anything to be nice,” he said.
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