First AirAsia flight lands in Tehran
Malaysia’s AirAsia X Company resume flights from Kuala Lumpur to Tehran by launching the first flight into Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA).
The flight arrived in Tehran after a four-year hiatus as the Malaysian company’s activities in Tehran were halted in 2012 and the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) provided AirAsia X with the possibility to return to Iran.
The first AirAsia aircraft with the flight number 776 landed in IKIA on Tuesday evening at 23:13 and left Tehran for Kuala Lumpur at 01:20 on Wednesday morning with the flight number 777.
The second flight of the Malaysian airliner will arrive into Imam Khomeini International Airport today at 20:20 before leaving for Bangkok at 21:50 o’clock.
Datuk Kamarudin bin Meranun, Chairman of AirAsia, had said earlier that the airline’s fleet comprises 200 Airbus aero planes asserting “currently, AirAsia is conducting 500 flights to 100 spots in Asia and Australia with reasonable ticket prices.”
“Being less than 5 years old, our fleet marks the youngest Airbus fleet in the world,” highlighted Kamarudin bin Meranun adding “Iranian passengers can commute in our flight network to other destinations with the same cheap rates.”
AirAsia chairman said the cancelation of flights to Tehran in 2012 were done as a result of a sudden increase in exchange rates and international sanctions were not involved in the issue.
The flights from Bangkok will depart every Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays as flight XJ450 at 15:10, and arrive in Tehran at 22:20 local time. The return flight later departs the day after at 21:50 and arrives in Bangkok the day after it departed, at 09:00 local time as flight XJ451, all operated by Thai AirAsia X.
The Malaysian low-cost airline has plans to increase both of the services to daily flights in the future. The airline is also keen on launching flights from Iran to China, Indonesia, Japan, Australia and Philippines.
Benyamin Ismail, AirAsia X CEO, had also reported on the resumption of direct flights to Tehran from Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok saying “over the past four years, the Malaysian airline had expanded its short- and long-range flights and passengers can now fly to more than a hundred destinations in 24 countries.”
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