The little Low Cost Carrier that could

As I predicted 5 years ago. Article taken from Bernama website.

AirAsia Flies More Passengers Than Mas Last Year

KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 (Bernama) -- Budget airline AirAsia overtook national carrier Malaysia Airlines (MAS) last year in terms of overall passenger volume, the Dewan Rakyat was told Wednesday.

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha said AirAsia flew 15.23 million passengers last year compared to the 13.87 million recorded by MAS.

Of the AirAsia passengers, 7.2 million were international passengers while 8.03 million were domestic passengers, he said in a written reply to a question from Loke Siew Fook (DAP-Rasah).

Of the MAS passengers, 7.37 million were international passengers and 6.5 million, domestic passengers, he added.

-- BERNAMA

On a separate notes, AirAsia's other recent achievements include:

1) won Skytrax's Best Low Cost Carrier Award for the second year in a row. (that means it has beat the competition of Ryanair and Southwest)

2)broken into the Top 10 airlines by passengers carried at Singapore Changi Airport.

3)become the first airline in South East Asia to connect all ASEAN capitals especially Laos and Myanmar, thereby making it a de-facto airline of ASEAN that sports the motto of being "Truly ASEAN"

On the battlefront:

1) Air Asia is planning to list its Thai, Indonesian and long haul subsidiaries soon when market conditions are best.

2) Air Asia is still trying to start operations on its Vietnamese subsidiary after the Vietnamese government turned around and got hostile with foreign players in their airline industry, partly on the nudging of Vietnam Airlines who doesn't want to give up its monopoly on routes.

3) The ever elusive KL-Sydney route.