AirAsia to resume flights to Mumbai, Delhi

Airline plans to have a base in Chennai, start operations with 3-4 airbus A320 planes

AirAsia X, the long haul arm of AirAsia, is preparing to start flights from Malaysia  to Mumbai and Delhi nearly a year after it stopped the service citing high costs.

"Airasia X will be restarting  routes to India very soon. Bombay (Mumbai)  Delhi around the corner," airline's group chief executive officer Tony Fernandes tweeted on Thursday.

Interestingly, Fernandes said the airline will skip "high cost airports'' like Mumbai and Delhi in its domestic operations. The airline plans to have a base in Chennai and start operations with 3-4 airbus A320 planes and connect tier II-III cities.

"AirAsia could use its Delhi and Mumbai flights to complement its proposed budget airline in India, which is expected to start local flights in India by the end of this year in a joint venture with local partners,'' Dow Jones said in its report.