| Senior citizens, children to pay less FAX to offer 50 per cent discounts for these two groups KUCHING: Fly Asian Xpress (FAX) will soon offer senior citizens and children discounted fares on all its flights. Its chief executive officer Raja Mohd Azmi Raja Razali announced here yesterday that the 50 per cent discount for senior citizens and children would take effect on Feb 15. He also announced a new route between Sibu and Kuching which will start in April. “We will have senior citizen and child fares for all our flights. Previously, we had it in our Twin Otter (flights), but now we have (these discounted fares) for all flights starting from Feb 15,” he said at a press conference held at Crown Towers here. The concession senior citizen and child fare is applicable to children aged between 2 and 12 years old, and adults 55 years and above. To obtain these fares, passengers would need to present proof of identification upon purchase at FAX or appointed AirAsia airport and sales offices. “The second announcement is we are going to have a Kuching-Sibu route, obviously at the request of people from Sibu, to enhance the number of flights they already have. “FAX is filling in the gaps, in terms of the timing so that the people have an alternative in terms of timing of flights to Sibu.” The new route would be operated by Fokker 50 aircraft and would be serviced twice daily. Flights would be available for purchase from April at AirAsia/ FAX airport and sales offices, appointed travel agents, FAX’s call centres and through the Internet. Raja Azmi also revealed that by April, it would be possible for passengers to book and choose their seats, online. “We have assigned seats for the Fokker 50 (flights)…but ultimately what we want to do is, by April you can book and choose your own seats online. “Right now, you have to (choose the seat you want) at the check-in counter, so (by April) if you want to sit by the window you can choose it through the Internet.” Raja Azmi also updated the local media on the airline’s performance over the last six months since it started operations on Aug 1 last year, following the implementation of the rationalisation of domestic air routes. He revealed that for the past six months, FAX had carried 400,000 passengers on its nearly 14,000 flights in Sarawak and Sabah. “The numbers state that 87 per cent (of FAX’s flights) are on time (and) by world standards that is more than reasonable…the main reason for delays and cancellations are primarily weather-related (5 per cent), especially in the interiors where our Twin Otters are more vulnerable to the weather. “Technical is another reason (4.7 per cent) and 3 per cent (of delays) is due to operational reasons…in terms of overall performance, these are the numbers,” he said, explaining that FAX flew to 22 destinations and operates 104 flights a day. He pointed out that although some of its 300 staff were still seconded from Malaysia Airlines (MAS), by next month FAX would be able to manage the engineering process on its own. Raja Azmi added that currently all but two of its seven Fokker 50s and five Twin Otters were now sporting the FAX livery. Published By:
The Borneo Post
7th February 2007 | 
