Airport coup dependent on terminal approval London calling in Avalon bid

Andrew Mathieson
Avalon Airport is on the cusp of hosting flights to London, according to a Malaysian budget airline.
AirAsia X Australian operations general manager Darren Wright said the airport would be “primed” for the flights if it won approval for a $30 million international terminal.
The flights were also dependent on the airline securing new passenger aircraft capable of handling the route, Mr Wright said.
AirAsia X announced last week that it planned to sell low-cost fares from Australia to London’s Stansted Airport within a year.
The airline predicted return tickets would cost around $1000.
Avalon and Melbourne airports are contenders for the flights.
Mr Wright said the flights would operate on a point-to-point route rather than direct to London, providing stopovers in other Australian cities and Kuala Lumpur.
Passengers would have to book two flights to and from the Malaysian capital on AirAsia X.
“That’s how we’ll keep the costs down so low,” Mr Wright said.
“It’s something that we would like to do but our biggest challenge is aircraft and getting hold of them.”
Mr Wright said AirAsia X was still in talks with Avalon and Melbourne airports about flying out of Victoria.
The decision about which airport to use would come down to operating costs, he said.
“Low-cost airline models are about driving down costs, so the airport would have to meet what we’d consider our best possible cost base,” he said.
Mr Wright believed Avalon had plenty of potential to win the business of AirAsia X.
“I like the Geelong market – I think it is quite primed for long-haul, low-costs,” Mr Wright said.
“I think it would work quite well but that’s squarely in the camp of (Linfox Airports’) David Fox and his Avalon team to make that happen.
“We’re on stand-by and we’ll show a commitment once the planets are aligned and we’ll decide which airport from there.”
Avalon could wait up to six months for final approvals from state and federal authorities.
Linfox Airports managing director David Fox had discussions last year with several international airlines, including AirAsia X, about luring them them to Avalon.
Mr Fox and Avalon Airport general manager Tim Anderson had not returned calls for comment when the Independent went to press yesterday.