long haul low cost airlines AirAsia X plan to make Africa its next major destination, said AirAsia Bhd group chief executive officer Tony Fernandes.
“Our team has just come back from South Africa, Egypt and Morocco. We are currently studying new routes, landing rights and potential markets that we are about to venture into,” he said after launching the AirAsia-CAE (Canadian Aviation Electronics) Asian Aviation Academy here Monday (June 20).“We see a lot of potential in Kenya and Somalia. We will definitely fly there (African continent) at some stage. AirAsia is always looking for new market opportunities and this includes other parts of the world as well,” he said.
He said AirAsia X flights to Africa would be focused on destinations in the central and southern part of the continent.
Former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad had suggested that the low-cost airline should consider Africa as its next major destination.
He had said during the Langkawi International Dialogue 2011 that the airline could either fly there on its own or join forces with African airlines to provide services between Kuala Lumpur and cities in the continent.
On the Asian Aviation Academy, Fernandes said the 200 million ringgit joint venture between AirAsia and CAE was aimed at training pilots, cabin crew, maintenance workers and ground personnel for airlines in the Asean region.
“We are planning to train some 12,000 pilots a year and we forecast that the number of trainees will grow exponentially.
“Pilot training programmes will be available from July 1 while non-pilot training programmes will commence on October 1,” he said, adding that it also accepted trainees from other airlines.
CAE group president Jeff Roberts said the training centre would include six CAE-built full-flight simulators, including four for the Airbus A320 and one each for the A330/340 and Boeing 737 Classic.
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