Indonesia AirAsia (QZ, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta) has announced plans to open a new base at Praya Lombok International with two A320-200s stationed out of the airport initially.
The carrier will launch new routes out of Lombok to Denpasar and Yogyakarta Adisutjipto domestically, as well as to Perth International internationally. It will also double the frequency on its only existing service from the airport to Kuala Lumpur International, which is currently operated by AirAsia (AK, Kuala Lumpur International) 7x weekly.
"AirAsia will accelerate post-earthquake recovery efforts to support the communities of West Nusa Tenggara and the people of Lombok. In the next few months, we will be working with airports and government authorities to turn Lombok into our newest hub in Indonesia, making this commitment a reality," AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes said.
The LCC did not say when will it open its Lombok base.
Currently, no airline bases its aircraft out of Lombok. Lion Air (JT, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta) is the market leader at the airport with 85 weekly departures and a 53% market share by capacity, while its subsidiary Wings Air (Indonesia) (IW, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta) operates another 63 weekly departures, the ch-aviation capacity module shows.
The airport sees predominantly domestic traffic with AirAsia's Kuala Lumpur and SilkAir's Singapore Changi routes being the only international scheduled connections.
