AirAsia offers 5 lakh free tickets to Kuala Lumpur

Malaysian low-cost airline AirAsia, which is awaiting DGCA permit to launch its services in India, is offering half a million free seats along with 1.8 million low-fare promotional seats on select routes from Kuala Lumpur.

Under the scheme that opened yesterday, bookings can be made till 2 March for the travel period from 1 October to 30 April 2015, AirAsia said in a release here.

The airline has offered all-inclusive fares starting from as low as Rs6,999 from Kochi, Kolkata, Tiruchirappalli, Chennai, Bangalore to Kuala Lumpur, while it has fixed the fares for Chennai-Bangkok sector at Rs7,999.

"This free seats promotion allows everyone to enjoy exquisite holiday destination options at very fair and realistic prices," AirAsia group chief commercial officer Siegtraund Teh said.

Air Asia is also offering promotional fares to Singapore, Jakarta, Bandung, Medan, Bali, Bangkok, Hat Yai, Surat Thani, Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh among others, through AirAsia's five Malaysian hubs in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Johor Bahru, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu, an airline release said.

The promotional offer is available for booking at airline's website as well as via AirAsia's mobile apps which are available on iPhone, Android devices, the Blackberry Z10 and the Windows Phone platform, the release said.

The AirAsia bonanza for the Indian traveller comes over and above the massive discounts offered by Indian carriers on the domestic route.

On Tuesday, Indian low-cost carrier GoAir announced up to 75 per cent discounts on all domestic flights between 1 April and 30 June, bookings for which close today.

Jet Airways also announced discount fares, but the offer is valid for travel between 27 March and 30 September, and the tickets are on sale till 27 February.

State-run Air India has not announced any such large fare discounts so far, although the airline currently has a discount offer for four of its flights (three of these are from Mumbai to Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Indore respectively), but for travel only up to 31 March.