AirAsia is returning to Mumbai as of May 19, 2017. The long-haul arm of the budget carrier used to operate into Mumbai till 2012, when it exited in February of that year.
To start with, the flight will be operated by Indonesia AirAsiaX, and will be operated between Mumbai and Bali, with a stop in Kuala Lampur in between. The flight will be operated by an Airbus 330-300 aircraft with 365 Economy and 12 seats in Premium Class. At the moment, there is no direct connection between Mumbai and Bali, and one has to change planes. Even Garuda Indonesia’s recent launch in Mumbai would connect Mumbai to Jakarta, and then an onward flight to Bali. As of now, AirAsiaX operates a 3 times a week service between Delhi and Kuala Lampur.
The Premium Hotbed on offer is an angled flatbed, which is not bad for a low-cost carrier.
Here is the schedule of the flight between Mumbai and Bali, with a stop in Kuala Lampur, for which no visa is required:
XT853 BOM2250 – 0630+1KUL 333 D
XT853 KUL0745 – 1045DPS 333 D
On the return:
XT852 DPS1510 – 1810KUL 333 D
XT852 KUL1910 – 2135BOM 333 D
There are introductory fares on this route selling at INR 19,999 for the roundtrip as well.
I’m glad AirAsiaX is coming back to Mumbai. This should increase the competition on the sectors served by AirAsiaX, and bring down pricing for travel to the east I say.
Bottomline
AirAsiaX keeps pricing under control, and this is a great price to plan a trip to Bali. Apparently, the fares are valid for travel through February 2018. Are you going to book up?
The Garuda flight operates CDG-BKK-BOM and vice versa.
Sadly nobody yet seems interested in a direct N/S flight from Indonesia to India.
Booked flat bed return tickets for a shade under 30k last week. Not a bad deal. Economy return ticket at the time was at 20k as mentioned by you.
Launch fare was zero fare tax only 13k/- return.
@Kapil, I am aware. It was actually 8.5K approx when tax only. However, I wasn’t able to book up then. But that is another story.