Malaysian carrier AirAsia
The service, which will launch in June, will make Bahrain AirAsia X’s first hub outside Asia, leveraging its location to connect Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe, the company said in a statement.
The move comes after Asia’s largest low-cost carrier completed the acquisition of the short-haul business from parent company Capital A last month, unifying the group’s seven airlines under one brand.
It also marks a return to the British capital more than a decade after it suspended direct flights from Kuala Lumpur to Gatwick and Stansted airports and retired its long-range Airbus A340s.
The Kuala Lumpur-Bahrain-London route will be operated by AirAsia The company had already inaugurated flights from Kuala Lumpur to Istanbul last November.
Malaysia-based AirAsia
Reuters reported last month, citing industry sources, that Airbus was close to a major deal to sell about 100 of its smaller A220 jets to AirAsia, with an option for 50 more.
The group’s co-founder, Tony Fernandes, said last June that the company was ready to expand its fleet by acquiring smaller planes to support new destinations, while AirAsia
AirAsia, one of the manufacturer’s largest European customers, operates an all-Airbus fleet and already has more than 350 narrow-body A320 family jets on order. Last July, it agreed a provisional order for 50 long-range A321XLR aircraft.
Founded in 2001 with just two aircraft, AirAsia has led the development of low-cost carriers in Southeast Asia. However, travel restrictions during the pandemic have hit parent company Capital A hard, which is classified as financially distressed under Malaysia’s PN17 framework.
Fernandes, who is also CEO of Capital A, said in a statement last month that the group has completed the PN17 regularization plan.
The consolidation of all AirAsia-branded aviation businesses under AirAsia
(Servizio di Julie Zhu da Hong Kong; Editing di Jamie Freed)
date: 2026-02-11 05:09:00
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