While the schedules for AirAsia X’s upcoming flights to Naha in Okinawa were loaded into the airline’s reservation system earlier, it officially announced them yesterday.
The flight will be an extension of one of the airline’s existing Kuala Lumpur – Taipei rotations.
D7384/385: Kuala Lumpur – Taipei – Naha and Back
AirAsia X will start operations on the new route from Kuala Lumpur (KUL) to Naha (OKA) via Taipei (TPE) on January 22, 2020, and from then on, it will operate four times a week with the following schedule:
- D7384 / KUL – TPE / 7:35AM – 12:20PM (Mon,Wed, Fri & Sun)
- D7384 / TPE – OKA / 1:35PM – 4:00PM (Mon,Wed, Fri & Sun)
- D7385 / OKA – TPE / 5:50PM – 6:30PM (Mon,Wed, Fri & Sun)
- D7385 / TPE – KUL / 9:20PM – 2:10AM+1 (Mon,Wed, Fri & Sun)
The flights will be operated by Airbus A330-300 aircraft featuring 12 business class seats (read my review) and 365 economy class seats (read my review).
While the route is still subject to government approval, it’s expected that AirAsia X will have fifth freedom rights to transfer passengers between Taipei and Okinawa. Passengers traveling all the way from Kuala Lumpur to Okinawa will have to disembark in Taipei and re-clear security.
When announcing the route, Benyamin Ismail, AirAsia X Malaysia CEO, commented that:
Our rapid expansion into Japan continues following the launch of services to Fukuoka and Tokyo Narita earlier this year.
He added also added the following, indicating the group’s intention to increase its presence in Okinawa in the future:
Like Fukuoka, we are building the foundation for more AirAsia flights to serve Okinawa in the near future, strengthening our regional network and allowing more travelers to discover the unique cultural heritage of this amazing destination.
Naha will be the airline’s fifth destination in Japan. Currently, it serves both of the Tokyo Haneda, Osaka Kansai, Sapporo, and Fukuoka. It plans to relaunch flights to Tokyo Narita next month.
Other AirAsia group companies including Thai AirAsia X and Philippines AirAsia serve Japan as well. The group also has a local subsidiary, AirAsia Japan.
As for routes between Taipei and Naha, AirAsia X will be the fifth airline to enter the market. At this point, China Airlines, Eva Air, Peach, and Tigerair connect the two cities.
While there are no direct flights between Kuala Lumpur and Naha at this point, the airport has non-stop flights to Bangkok and Singapore. The first of those is operated by Peach and the latter by Jetstar Asia Airways.
Summary
Over the last couple of years, AirAsia X has been expanding fairly aggressively into Japan. Besides opening new routes from Kuala Lumpur, it even picked Osaka as its stopover airport for its flights to Hawaii.
Considering that they offer good fares – and a decent experience in both economy class and business class – I’m glad to see the airline expanding its Japanese network even further.
That said, I am a bit confused about the new route’s schedules.
On the flight to Naha, the aircraft stops in Taipei for 1 hour 15 minutes which is perfect. On the way back, though, it stops there for almost three hours increasing the total travel time considerably.
With that in mind, I wonder what percentage of passengers will be going from Kuala Lumpur all the way to Naha, and what percentage will originate in Taipei.
1 thought on “AirAsia X Announces the Schedule of Its Upcoming Route to Okinawa”
I hope Airasia X will include flights on their routes to and from South Korea (ICN) from Malaysia after the Malaysian Gov’t lifts Covid restrictions on April 1st. It will make a big difference on travel time when traveling to east Malaysia coming from the USA.