FlyAsianXpress

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FlyAsianXpress

IATA D7	ICAO -	Callsign -
Founded		2006
Hubs		Miri Airport
Focus cities		Kota Kinabalu International Airport
Fleet size		12
Destinations		22
Parent company		-
Headquarters		Miri, Sarawak
Key people		Raja Mohd Azmi (CEO)
Website: http://www.flyasianxpress.com

FlyAsianXpress (FAX) is a Malaysian regional airliner. It is privately owned by the management team of AirAsia, Asia's largest low-cost carrier. The airline was subcontracted by AirAsia to operate several domestic services following the withdrawal of Malaysia Airlines from Rural Air Service routes within East Malaysia. Its maiden flight took off on August 1 2006, despite being delayed for 50 minutes by bad weather^[1]. FAX will not be operated as a low cost carrier^[2] but it will incorporate some of AirAsia’s practices in order to reduce cost namely, internet and phone booking, as well as ticketless check-in system.

1 Early criticisms
2 Aircraft
3 Associate Companies
- 3.1 AirAsia X
4 Destinations
- 4.1 Malaysia
5 References
6 External link

Within days of operation it was subject to a flood of criticisms from commuters, civil servants, and people working in the tourism industry, with critics arguing that the new turboprop service provided by FAX should not be more expensive than the Rural Air Service previously operated by Malaysia Airlines, given that FAX is subsidised by the Malaysian government ^[3]. Later in the month the CEO of Sarawak Tourism Board stated that disruptions to cargo supply flights to the interior caused tourists to Bario to take their own food rations, rather than rely upon the air cargo supplies of food and fuel ^[4].

The airline operates 12 aircraft based in Miri (Sarawak) and Kota Kinabalu (Sabah). All aircraft were previously utilised by Malaysia Airlines.

Aircraft	# in Service	# of Seats
Fokker 50	7	50
Twin Otter	5	19

FAX is planning to buy new aircrafts to replace Fokker 50 aircrafts with French-Italian ATR 42 or 72 model and Canadian Bombardier Q300 or Q400 which can carry 49 and 70 passengers. ^[5]

Main article: AirAsia X

On January 5 2007, FAX announced plans to operate a long-haul budget service to destinations, starting with Hangzhou, Tianjin and Manchester. The date of operation is pushed forward to as late as August 2008 because of difficulty finding planes in the market. The service will be branded AirAsia X as a franchise of AirAsia. ^[6]