AirAsia to start Madurai-Kuala Lumpur flights

AirAsia will start a service this year to connect Madurai in Tamil Nadu to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, the airline’s promoter, Tony Fernandes, has tweeted.

“Having met E M Sudarsan Nachiappan, minister of state, commerce and industry, Government of India, I can confirm AirAsia will start Kuala Lumpur-Madurai this year,” he tweeted.

The airline’s chief had said it would focus more on tier-II cities. Already, the airline connects some of its major destinations from Tiruchirapalli, one of the busy tier-II

hubs in Tamil Nadu.

After getting approval to launch a low cost airline, Fernandes is touring India. His first stop was at Chennai and Kochi on Saturday. He is planning to visit Mumbai and Delhi.

The new, low-cost airline is a three-way joint venture between AirAsia, Tata Group and Telestra.

Fernandes, a football fan, also tweeted, “Got to say Chennai is a great city. Would be a great place for a football club. Chennai Rangers.”

The airline has said one of the modes it would look at while building its brand in India is sports.