Air Asia X is quickly becoming the world’s most prominent long haul budget airline. The Malaysian based carrier began with flights from Kuala Lumpur – Perth, Australia. These were followed by additional flights to Melbourne, Gold Cost, Taiwan, London and Abu Dhabi. A second foothold in Europe is just what the carrier needs.
Air Asia X has chosen to fly to Paris Orly airport instead of the regular international Charles de Gaulle airport. Again this is in line with its London route where the airline uses Stanstead airport. The strategy has proven successful for two reasons. Firstly, the landing fees are considerably cheaper as these are secondary airports. It also means that connecting passengers can use one of the many low cost budget carriers to make a connecting trip. As Paris Orly airport is the busiest French airport for domestic flights, this will put Air Asia X in a more prominent position to serve the whole of France and not just Paris.
Reports have claimed that approval for the route was granted when Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak spoke personally with French President Nicholas Sarkozy during their meeting at Elysee Palace. This followed a four day visit to France by Razak where he had lobbied various officials to grant the landing rights.
Budget airlines are now very common in Europe, though none of them appear to offer long haul services. What is interesting is that passengers can now fly from Europe via Kuala Lumpur, all the way to Australia on Air Asia x. This means there are some potentially ground breaking deals to be had for those who book far in advance. The main problem with the Stanstead route has been the sheer demand have increased prices dramatically and it is virtually impossible to get the £99GBP fares that were commonly available when the route launched.
Expect the usual array of newspaper bashing about budget airlines and small seats. In fact, as was discussed in our recent article 5 facts about choosing the best Air Asia X seat, the Air Asia X seat pitch is actually the same as many full service airlines such as British Airways, Lufthansa and United. Like anything though, you get what you pay for and passengers should not expect luxury treatment here. Staff are very courteous, but everything from meals and drinks to pillow and seat assignments costs extra.
NeverFlyEconomy.com will bring you the latest on the new route are more information becomes available.
Air Asia Frequent Flyer Program
Officially Air Asia has no Frequent Flyer Program and has previously stated that as a budget airline it does not intend to introduce one. Most of Air Asia’s competitors do have their own frequent flyer program. This guide shows you how to earn up to 200,000 frequent flyer miles with Air Asia’s competitors – without stepping on a plane! Redeeming miles for flights is effectively free and therefore cheaper than any seat Air Asia can offer you.
Photo by Jos Dielis
Changi international airport in Singapore is often regarded as one of the best airports in the world. Located smack in the middle of the European – Australian flight path, Singapore makes a great stopover point and a great gateway to Asia. Compared to other major international airports, such as Los Angeles or London Heathrow, Changi international airport is a breeze to pass through and is the epitome of Asian ingenuity and efficiency. This guide shows you how to make the most of your time at the airport and enjoy many different activities, mostly without spending anything. Continue Reading
I recently booked a flight to Tioman Island, Malaysia on Berjaya Air and have written this review. There is little information about actual Berjaya Air flights out there and no reviews seem to be available. Berjaya fly to several airports that no other airline travels to. Despite this fact, prices are relatively cheap even compared to low cost carriers in the region. The review will look at the whole Berjaya Air travel experience from the airport to the flight.
Berjaya Air is a small airline that operates from Kuala Lumpur and Singapore to a number of tourist destinations in the region. Unlike most other airlines, Berjaya Air operates a fleet of 48 seat Dash 7 turboprops. This allows them to operate from much smaller runways. The islands of Tioman, Redang and Koh Samui do not have particularly large airports and larger 737 or A320 aircraft cannot be used. This means that to fly to these islands Berjaya Air are pretty much your only option. Compared to land and sea travel, considerable time can be saved.
Continue Reading
The Iris Recognition System is a new biometric technology that allows some passengers to pass through immigration at London Heathrow airport almost instantly, without showing their passport. In our recent article entitled Top 6 tips for getting through Airport Immigration Quickly, we talked about how using automated airport immigration services could dramatically speed up your journey through immigration at some airports. You can effectively bypass the queues as immigration and head straight through to baggage reclaim.
The following four UK airports are currently using IRIS: Heathrow, Gatwick, Birmingham and Manchester. As Heathrow is by far the busiest airport this article will concentrate on the IRIS recognition system at Heathrow.
Essentially, everyone has a unique eyeball and by taking a photograph of this, it is possible identify individuals. This works in a similar method to fingerprints but is much more accurate. Everyone who wants to register must sign up to the IRIS scheme at Heathrow before leaving the country. Anyone over 18 can register provided they meet certain criteria. Generally speaking, all UK/EU passport holders can register as well as anyone already holding a UK visa for more than 2 months or frequent visitors to the UK.
IRIS registration is a simple process that takes 5-10 minutes at most and is available at all Heathrow terminals, after security. It involves having a photo taken of your eyes and stored on a system together with your passport details. A full list of registration lactations is available here. You only need to register once, regardless of how many times you can use the system.
When you enter the UK through immigration at Heathrow, look out for the IRIS signs. These are typically immediately before the regular immigration queue begins. You simply have to walk up to an IRIS machine, look into it and then a security door will open and you can proceed to baggage claim. That is it, a very quick and easy to use system – you don’t even need to show your passport at the IRIS machine as it is stored on the IRIS immigration database.
The data is stored for exclusive use by the IRIS recognition system and there is no need to worry about data security. Furthermore, the system uses high quality digital photos, similar to a regular digital camera, so have no negative effects. No flash or lasers are used and the system is perfectly ok to use regularly.
Overall, while queues at Heathrow immigration can exceed 20 minutes on occasion, not nearly as bad as the 1hour+ regularly faced in the USA, the IRIS recognition system drastically cuts down this time. Another great advantage of IRIS, passports are not required as the system automatically checks you passport on its record system. This saves a considerable amount of time when passing through immigration. Having used the IRIS machines at Heathrow I can attest to the fact they are extremely quick and easy to use. A must have for anyone wanting to save time on their journey.
