AirAsia’s Subang homecoming – new flights take off to Kota Kinabalu and Kuching

This Friday, 30-Aug-2024, marks the return of AirAsia to Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport (Subang Airport/SZB) as part of the first phase in the transformation of Kuala Lumpur's old city airport.

It is an ironic homecoming, given that this is where AirAsia - following its rebirth in Dec-2001 as the region's first low-cost carrier - started and fought hard to stay at 22 years ago.

In 2002 AirAsia lost its appeal to overturn the Malaysia government's decision to consolidate all commercial passenger jet flights at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

AirAsia CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said at the time, "We are disappointed", and the upholding of the policy to end all jet flights at Subang was "a big blow to AirAsia[,] but we have to carry on".

This analysis was written by our former chief analyst Brendan Sobie, who has covered the Southeast Asian LCC sector for over two decades, including nine years working at CAPA - Centre for Aviation.