From August 1, 2024, AirAsia X will extend its Kuala Lumpur – Taipei Taoyuan route to Osaka Kansai. The new one-stop route will operate once a day and AirAsia X will have fifth-freedom rights to transport passengers between Taipei and Osaka.
Once the route is extended, the flights will operate as follows:
- D7378 / Kuala Lumpur – Taipei Taoyuan / 9:30AM – 2:25PM
- D7378 / Taipei Taoyuan – Osaka Kansai / 3:50PM – 7:30PM
- D7379 / Osaka Kansai – Taipei Taoyuan / 10:25PM – 12:10AM+1
- D7379 / Taipei Taoyuan – Kuala Lumpur / 1:25AM+1 – 6:15AM+1
AirAsia X will use Airbus A330-300 aircraft with 377 seats including 12 in business and 365 in economy class on the route. It will also continue to operate daily non-stop flights between Kuala Lumpur and Osaka Kansai using the same aircraft type.
On the route’s Taipei – Osaka portion, AirAsia X will compete with nearly a dozen other airlines offering over a dozen daily flights. Airlines currently connecting the cities include JAL and all three Taiwanese full-service carriers (China Airlines, EVA Air, and Starlux Airlines), as well as Batik Air, Cathay Pacific, Jetstar, Peach, Thai Vietjet, and Tigerair Taiwan.
The Kuala Lumpur – Taipei route’s extension will be AirAsia Group’s third fifth-freedom route between Taiwan and Japan, following Thai AirAsia’s recently launched Taipei – Naha and Kaohsiung – Tokyo Narita flights. While AirAsia X was also planning to launch Taipei – Tokyo Narita route at the end of May 2024, that plan was scrapped based on an order from the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM).
