‘China tourists to lead the way’: AirAsia CEO

People are beginning to get their confidence back in travel and China tourists will be the first to travel again, as the country is almost being cleared of the pandemic, says AirAsia Group CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes. The Chinese tourists are important as they make up the largest number of tourists travelling worldwide before the pandemic. “I foresee Chinese tourists flying to Malaysia too. Travellers will prefer shorter flights of about four hours as a start. “AirAsia will benefit because there are many direct flights from Kuala Lumpur to Chinese cities, ” he said Wednesday. China, Thailand and Malaysia were seeing a strong demand for domestic travel, he said. “We think Asia will be in the lead for borders reopening. I think in June of next year, we will begin to see more international travel. By February of next year, we will see domestic travel returning to pre-Covid levels,” he added. He believes the progress in vaccines, new testing methods, medicines, and the knowledge gained from the pandemic meant that there was a beginning to the end. Fernandes said with steps such as wearing masks, the air circulation in the plane and hepa filters made it almost impossible for the virus to spread in a plane. He also said Covid-19 has ensured airlines would work closer with airports, whom he claimed had generally been the problem in trying to make things easier in the past.<br/>