AirAsia Japan to Start Operation from April 2016

AirAsia Japan has received approval from the transport ministry of Japan to its restart of the service in the Japanese market on October 6. Airlines of AirAsia will start flying with passengers from the spring of the next year and Central Japan International Airport will be mostly used as their basement.

Central Japan International Airport is located in Aichi prefecture where is positioned between Tokyo and Osaka and it is close to Nagoya.
The AirAsia group launched services in Japan in 2012 in partnership with All Nippon Airways, now ANA Holdings Inc.

The low-cost carrier is originally from Malaysia and used to have flights connection the cities of Japan with the support of the partner ANA. However, due to financial difficulties caused by lack of passenger, AirAsia has withdrawal 2 years ago. 

Since the 2020 Olympic will be held in Japan and many foreigners and spectators are expected to visit and move around the country, AirAsia Japan was created earlier in July of this year.

AirAsia Japan will connect Central Japan International Airport with New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido, and with Sendai. It is expected that there will be new route connection with Taipei in 2016 too. 

Airbus A320 will be used for those flights with the cost of one-third of major airlines.
The comeback of AirAsia flights and AirAsia Japan was made possible with the investment from Japanese internet based company called Rakuten.

The president of AirAsia Japan, Yoshinori Odagiri said, "Using 3rd largest Japanese urban area as our base, we will keep on expanding the routes and numbers of the flights. We want to become an airline that everyone can use easily."

The C.E.O. of AirAsia, Tonu Fernandes has told reporters that "The location of our new basement airport is great. Japanese can start using us not only for direct flights but also for connection flights."

News Source: NHK