After a gap of two years, Air Asia has planned to resume direct flights on the Tiruchi - Kuala Lumpur sector daily from April 1. The move comes in the wake of the Centre’s decision to resume scheduled commercial international passenger services to and from India from March 27.
Air Asia was operating three flights daily to Kuala Lumpur from Tiruchi till March 2020 when it suspended the services owing to the Centre’s ban on international flights to and from India in the wake of the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.
Sources said Air Asia has planned to operate one service at night in the Tiruchi - Kuala Lumpur sector daily from April 1. As per the plan, flight (AK 23) from Kuala Lumpur would arrive at Tiruchi at 10 p.m. and depart as AK-22 at 10.30 p.m. after a 30 minute halt here.
The airline sources said online booking for the daily service had started. The resumption of the Air Asia flight service to Kuala Lumpur is expected to further increase international passengers’ movement at the non-metro Tiruchi international airport. According to Airports Authority of India statistics, Tiruchi airport handled over three lakh international passengers from April 2021 to January 2022.