18 Destinations: AirAsia X's summer operations from Kuala Lumpur

4 March 2023

In the soon-to-start northern summer, the widebody-only AirAsia X expects to serve 18 destinations from Kuala Lumpur for its summer operations.

AirAsia X's Summer Operations From Kuala Lumpur — AirAsia X’s Summer Operations From Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia’s AirAsia X underwent massive upheaval during the pandemic.

It currently has 14 A330-300s, of which five are parked as of the end of February.

Summer flights remain down by 55%.

AirAsia X’s summer destinations

Examining the northern summer season (March 26th-October 28th) reveals that AirAsia X will serve 18 destinations from Kuala Lumpur, as detailed below. Some won’t remain long, while others will resume in that period. Australia is its most-served country, with four destinations and up to four daily flights. It was second to China in summer of 2019, with the Asian nation continuing to awaken from the crisis.

Seoul Incheon: 10 weekly
Auckland: daily (via Sydney)
Denpasar Bali: daily
Melbourne: daily
Taipei: daily
Tokyo Haneda: daily
Sydney: daily (continuing to Auckland)
Perth: five weekly to daily (daily from July)
Kota Kinabalu: up to five weekly (ends in May)
Delhi: four weekly
Honolulu: four weekly via Osaka Kansai (resumes September 1st)
Osaka Kansai: four weekly (later continuing to Honolulu)
Jeddah: four weekly (until May 31st outbound)
Shanghai Pudong: four weekly
Beijing Daxing: up to four weekly (three weekly, then four from May)
Gold Coast: three weekly (I once flew this route)
Hangzhou: three weekly
Pusan: three weekly

Which destinations has it cut?

Analysis of AirAsia X’s schedules for summer 2023 versus summer 2019 reveals that it no longer serves Amritsar, Avalon (Melbourne Tullamarine is served instead), Beijing Capital (Daxing is served instead), Changsha, Chengdu, Chongqing, Fukuoka, Jaipur, Jeju, Langzhou, Sapporo, Tianjin, or Xian. Excluding Avalon and Beijing Capital, will AirAsia X relaunch any with its existing A330-300s or incoming A321XLRs or A330-900s?

Inevitably, China features heavily in the cut list. AirAsia X has 330 departing flights to China this summer, down 82% from 1,812 in the summer of 2019. It is by far the worst affected nation in AirAsia’s network, after which is India (flights down by 64%), Taiwan (-52%), and South Korea (-50%).

If 2019-2022 is examined more widely, AirAsiaX has also ceased Kuching, Tokyo Haneda (Haneda is served instead), Okinawa (briefly), and Singapore. Yes, it did deploy 377-seat A330-300s on the 184 miles (296 km) from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, with a double daily service from November 2019 to April 2020.

A day in the life

AirAsia X will have an average of 11 daily departures this summer from Kuala Lumpur, with as few as eight and as many as 14. On April 19th, for example, all of these are scheduled to take off:

03:00: D7518, Pusan
05:00: D7700, Jeddah
07:30: D7378, Taipei
07:50: D7302, Hangzhou
08:45: D7676, Kota Kinabalu
08:50: D7798, Denpasar-Bali
14:20: D7522, Tokyo Haneda
15:50: D7508, Seoul Incheon
19:20: D7182, Delhi
20:10: D7218, Melbourne
22:50: D7288, Sydney, and on to Auckland
23:00: D7504, Seoul Incheon
23:10: D7200, Gold Coast
23:40: D7532, Osaka Kansai

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