AirAsia X is celebrating the return of travel in a major way, with the launch of services from Kuala Lumpur to London, Dubai, Istanbul, Tokyo, Sapporo, Osaka and Honolulu this year.

Executive Chairman of Capital A and Founder of AirAsia X, Datuk Kamarudin Meranun, said it was an “incredibly exciting day as AAX returns to the skies refreshed and rejuvenated”.

“The resumption of four popular medium haul routes and announcement of three new long haul services today is a significant milestone following the most challenging time in aviation history,” he said.

“We are thrilled to return to London and to launch flights for the first time to Dubai and Istanbul.

“Istanbul is my favourite destination and I can’t wait to share the many highlights with everyone. We are sure all of these destinations will prove popular and look forward to seeing everyone back on board AAX again soon.”

Capital A President (Commercial) Colin Currie said: “Today’s announcement marks a new era for our long haul affiliate AirAsia X which is resuming operations after a two-year hiatus, with refreshed branding to signal a fresh new start.

“Maximum value, maximum experience and maximum destinations are what the relaunched AAX stands for. However, the ethos of AirAsia – delivering low cost, high quality will continue to underpin the new-look AAX, providing maximum opportunity for everyone to go to their dream destinations.

“Capital A will support AAX moving forward, as a conduit to leverage synergies within our broad ecosystem of travel and lifestyle products. We will use our full resources including the airasia Super App, our cargo business Teleport, fintech arm BigPay and all of the other airlines in the AirAsia Aviation Group to take AAX to new heights.”

AirAsia X CEO Benyamin Ismail said: “We are back, better and stronger than ever. We have spent the downtime in flying reviewing every aspect of the operation to deliver even greater value and choice for medium and long haul travel.

“Now that international borders are reopening across the world, we are able to resume operations to our most popular destinations including Australia, Japan, Hawaii, India, South Korea first.

“Today’s announcement of the resumption of four routes to Japan and Hawaii and to launch flights to London, Istanbul and Dubai is just the beginning. We have many more destinations in the pipeline which we will announce soon, to meet strong pent up demand.

“The return to London and first time flights direct to Dubai and Istanbul will be a ‘gamechanger’ for great value long haul travel and these will be on sale soon for travel later this year.

“As our services grow, we will continue to bring our fleet of aircraft out of hibernation and, we can look forward to gradually bringing our valued pilots and cabin crew who were on furlough back.

“I am confident all of our resumed or new services will prove to be very popular and that we will return to pre-Covid capacity on some of our core routes within the next 12 months.

“Our strategic new model, combining cargo and passengers enables AirAsia X to fly profitably where other airlines may not be able to, which makes operations to longer-haul routes like Dubai, Istanbul and London, commercially viable and more affordable for our guests at the same time.”