The low-cost carrier said the maiden flight — the first of nine scheduled daily flights from Kuala Lumpur — left Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (klia2) at 9.50am, utilising an Airbus A321neo aircraft.
“Aside from Kuala Lumpur (63 flights weekly), AirAsia also has flights to Langkawi departing from Penang (14 times weekly), Johor Bahru (seven times weekly), Ipoh (three times weekly) and Kota Bharu (three times weekly), making up a total of 90 weekly flights,” it said in a statement.
AirAsia Malaysia chief executive officer Riad Asmat said more than 200,000 seats to Langkawi were sold in less than a week.
“To facilitate this movement, we have prepared extensively and implemented robust and comprehensive health and safety protocols to ensure all our guests can travel safely, with our 100% vaccinated crew and frontliners.
“After months of preparation, we are thrilled to get the country flying again and are ready to scale up our operations to meet overwhelming demand.
“We hope more travel bubbles will be established across the country soon in line with the accelerated vaccine rollout, and eventually across the region when it is safe to do so,” he added.
AirAsia also launched its ride-hailing service in Langkawi today with a 100% fully-vaccinated driver fleet.
Covid-19 tests before boarding
Meanwhile, transport minister Wee Ka Siong said a total of 1,520 travellers flew to Langkawi on eight flights under the Langkawi domestic tourism bubble pilot project today.
He said they travelled via Malaysia Airlines (four flights), AirAsia (three flights) and a Malindo flight.
“I saw that some passengers had brought their own Covid-19 self-test kits (saliva test) and some had bought them from the sales counters at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and klia2,” he said in a Facebook post today.
He said during his inspection at the airports, one passenger tested positive for Covid-19 and necessary follow-up action was taken.
“Family members of the passenger also did not board the flight as they were close contacts,” he said.
Wee said the Rapid Test Kit-Antigen (RTK-Antigen) screening process, aided by health ministry officials, ran smoothly.
Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) general manager (operations) Shahrunnizam Abd Jamil accompanied Wee during his inspection rounds.
Wee said the Covid-19 screening was to ensure everyone’s safety and the pilot project’s success.
He also said French and South Korean tourists whom he met expressed happiness that the domestic tourism sector had been revived with this project.
Wee reminded all parties to always adhere to the standard operating procedures set.
Tourism, arts and culture minister Nancy Shukri said she was targeting 200,000 domestic tourists to visit Langkawi between this month and December.
She said about 30,000 tourists are expected to visit the resort island this month following its reopening under the tourism bubble pilot project beginning today.
Nancy, accompanied by Kedah menteri besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor, welcomed the first batch of 159 tourists who arrived at the Langkawi International Airport under this travel bubble initiative.