Family off to London, thanks to airline offer

SEPANG: A lifelong dream came true for 52-year-old Bhagwan Kor.

Now she can afford to visit her relatives in London and see Europe with AirAsia X’s RM499 return fare.

She was one of 286 passengers who took the low-cost carrier’s inaugural flight to London, thanks to her daughter Jagjit Kaur, who also bought tickets for father Laban Singh, 59, and brother Jasmair Singh, 25, when it was launched on Nov 25.

Dream come true: (From left) Jasmair Singh, Jagjit Kaur, Bhagwan Kor and Laban Singh are all smiles before boarding AirAsia X’s inaugural flight from KL to London at KLIA-LCC terminal.

“I waited with my laptop logged on to AirAsia’s website at 7.45pm and waited for the promotion to start at 8pm,” Jagjit Kaur said when met just before her flight at 9am on the Airbus A340-300 yesterday.

She said it was a good tactic to avoid website congestion by logging on to the website just as the promotion started.

A junior manager for IT firm CSC Malaysia, Jagjit Kaur, 28, said it was a great feeling to be able to buy return air tickets to London for her whole family for just over RM6,000.

British couple Sarah Brook, 28, and Simon Mahood, 27, jumped at the chance to fly back to London to get married with the low fare from their adopted home of Hanoi.

“It was good timing that we received the promotion for the flight at £99 in my e-mail from AirAsia just as we were planning for our wedding,” Sarah said before boarding.

The route also proved popular among travellers between Australia and Europe. The airline flies from Kuala Lumpur to London five times a week.

Asean secretary-general Dr Surin Pitsuwan, who took the same flight yesterday, said member countries could do with more affordable intra-Asean flights to promote better integration between their citizens.

He said he hoped the airline could expand its flights to cover more destinations in the Asian region, especially to southern China, to encourage trade between the regions.

“Many provincial capitals in southern China are seeking to connect with Asean countries. They are going to be the new growth centres, away from the coastal regions,” he said.

AirAsia X chief executive officer Azran Osman-Rani said the airline’s next move would be to open more flights to China in addition to its existing Tianjin and Hangzhou routes.

He added that the 50% reduction in landing fees for airlines was good for the regional air travel industry, adding that it would be passed on to AirAsia X’s passengers in terms of lower fares.