AirAsia celebrates first birthday at Avalon

AIRASIA has celebrated its first birthday flying between Avalon Airport and Kuala Lumpur, and the international airline has flagged more destinations will be coming.

In its first year after moving to Geelong from Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport, AirAsia X has carried about half a million passengers – in line with its projections – and maintained its loading of 82 per cent capacity.

AirAsia X chief executive officer Benyamin Ismail and Avalon chief executive officer Justin Giddings celebrated the occasion with cake on Thursday last week.

Mr Ismail said it had been an excellent first year.

“The success, for me, is trying to get people to buy in to this airport.

“It was a big gamble for us to move from Tullamarine but I believed in the Avalon team to make sure that it is a success.

“Really, we’ve been working around the clock trying to educate people about Avalon, the Geelong area.

“The perception is that it’s an hour and a half to get here (from Melbourne), but in general, the average is about 31 minutes, so that has been a success.”

AirAsia X presently flies twice daily to and from Kuala Lumpur, and Mr Ismail said the airline was actively looking to connect other markets to Avalon.

“Generally, we want to have some connectivity to Bali, some connectivity to Bangkok or some other parts of Thailand, Indonesia… so if we can have that, it’ll be massive.”

He said the visiting friends and relatives (VFR) market was particularly strong for both inbound and outbound passengers, especially passengers travelling to India via Kuala Lumpur.

Thursday also saw the launch of AirAsia’s Fast Airport Clearance Experience System (FACES) at Avalon, which uses facial recognition technology to make boarding faster and easier for Passengers.