Aviation: AirAsia X gets KL - Sydney permission

Really, the argument was a bit of a no-brainer: if Jetstar could operate a low-cost service out of Singapore, linking from KL, then why hamper the development of what is rapidly turning into a quasi-national carrier?

AirAsia has had to find novel ways around blocks in its attempts to develop routes ever since its inception: Singapore refused it landing rights, so it flew to Johor Baru, ten minutes' drive from the border and bussed passengers across. Singapore threatened to impound its buses - while allowing Malaysia Airlines to operate a similar scheme.

But both Malaysia and Singapore are learning a valuable lesson: history shows that AirAsia does not eat their business on their most lucrative routes - on the insanely expensive KUL - SIN route, both national carriers have increased their flights - which are often at capacity - since AirAsia, Tiger Airways and Jetstar came into competition. And on the (equally madly priced) Bali - Singapore route, a recent trip was on an Singapore flight that was full while the AirAsia flight that left a few minutes earlier had capacity. There were other low cost carriers operating at the same time.

AirAsia X now has the capacity to fly passengers from London's Gatwick to Sydney with just one small hiccup: AirAsia X still considers itself a point to point carrier and therefore passengers need to collect their luggage at the change - and it will not guarantee connections.

With the move to a long-haul network with the considerable range of feeder flights across South East Asia, the group really needs to look at booking through, at least on its own network.

Like most low-cost carriers, AirAsia and AirAsia X are not part of IATA nor are they part of any airline networks. There are no code shares, no facilities to transfer passengers to a partner airline if an aircraft gets stuck.

In the UK, AirAsia, like most airlines, is going to come under pressure over its website which UK authorities say, use "drip pricing" and charge "facilitation fees" that exceed those charged by card companies. But the UK authorities are not going so far as to say that the fee should be included in the price (it's a flat-rate, compulsory payment often added last after a series of pages for e.g. luggage, seat, meal charges).

AirAsia has managed to keep even its full price tickets consistently lower than many discounted fares from some carriers but like all low-cost-airlines, the cheapest deals are limited by both time and number.