AirAsia reaches the States first.

According to this article in USA Today AirAsia is in the works to fly to either Los Angeles or New York by 2010.

Without a doubt AirAsia is Malaysia's most innovative company in history. Perhaps the most innovative LCC ever. AirAsia must be the first LCC to try and spread its wings so far. Other LCC's like Southwest, Ryanair, and Easyjet just stay in their market zones and continue capturing from the legacies. Hope Tony Fernandes knows what he's doing, and most especially, the people who are going to run AirAsia after him. Would be a shame to have AirAsia crash under its own weight.

The thing that worries me is the battering that AirAsia, and other LCC's in the region are facing from the global recession. Buying more and more planes with no one to ride them. I think right now Tony Fernandes goal is just to whether the storm until the boom times come.

Also this article from FlightGlobal tells nicely about the convergence that is happening between legacy carriers and LCC's over time. As LCC's continue to grow and expand their fleet, they deviate from the purist low-cost model that differentiated them in the beginning. Legacy carriers on the other hand, have begun offering just as competitive prices (eg. Malaysia Airlines), forming theier own LCC subsidiaries, or buying stakes in private LCCs. In the end, they are all converging to the middle ground, in which case the legacy carriers have the upper hand at the moment because of extra comfort and mileage points.

Read the article yourself for the whole picture!

In the meantime, AirAsia come to America quick!