AirAsia X planning to fly to Africa

SEPANG: AirAsia X is planning to fly to destinations in Africa, saidAirAsia Bhd group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes. “Our team has just come back from South Africa, Egypt and Morocco. We are currently surveying new routes, landing rights and potential markets that we are about to venture into,” he told reporters after launching the AirAsia-CAE (Canadian Aviation Electronics) Asian Aviation Academy here on Monday.

He said AirAsia X flights going to Africa would be focused on destinations in the central and southern part of the continent. “We see a lot of potential in Kenya and Somalia. We will definitely fly there (African continent) at some stage. "AirAsia is always looking to find new market opportunities and this includes other parts of the world as well,” he said.

Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had suggested that the low-cost airline should consider Africa as its next major destination. He had said during the Langkawi International Dialogue 2011 that the company could either fly there on its own or join forces with African airlines to provide services between Kuala Lumpur and cities in the continent.

On the Asian Aviation Academy, Fernandes said the RM200mil joint venture between AirAsia and CAE was aimed at training pilots, cabin crew, maintenance workers and ground personnel for airlines in the Asean region. “We are planning to train some 12,000 pilots a year in the academy and we forecast that the number of trainees will grow exponentially. “Pilot training programmes will be available from July 1 while non-pilot training programmes will commence on Oct 1,” he said, adding that it also accepted trainees from other airlines. CAE group president Jeff Roberts said the training centre would include six CAE-built full-flight simulators, including four for the Airbus A320 and one each for the A330/340 and Boeing 737 Classic.

-thestar online.