OK…. the big news in the airline industry this week it is definitely the one about long haul low-cost carrier Air Asia X that is expanding in the Europe direction, preparing to open a hub at Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) next spring. They are doing thins because they want to open some European routes and to connect them with their other hub in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

But there is a very big change that Air Asia will go in 2012-2013 and open a hub in Europe, hub that could be in Germany.

I was thinking in the last two days about the airlines created by Sir Richard Branson under the “Virgin” brand. The timeline is:
1984 – Europe – Virgin Atlantic; hubs: London Gatwick and London Heathrow;

After the boom of low-cost travel, arround the years 2001-2002:
2003 – Australia – Virgin Blue; hubs: Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane;
2003 – Australia/New Zeeland – Pacific Blue; hubs: Brisbane and Christchurch;
2004 – Africa – Virgin Nigeria; hub: Lagos;
2004 – North America – Virgin America; hub: San Francisco and Los Angeles (due to American legislation the company started to operate in late 2007);
2005 – Polynesia – Polynesian Blue; hub: Samoa;
2009 – Australia – V Australia; hubs: Sydney and Los Angeles;

Lets now have a look at Air Asia timeline.
1993 - the company is founded;
1996 – Air Asia starts opperations with the hub in Kuala Lumpur; after 2000 they added three new hubs, all in Malaysia: Kota Kinabalu, Penang and Senai;
2004 – Thai AirAsia; hub: Bangkok;
2005 – Indonesia AirAsia; hub: Jakarta;
2006 – FlyAsianXpress - rural routes inside Malaysia (from 2007, it license passed to Air Asia X, and the company is called now MASwings);
2007 – AirAsia X; long haul low-cost, flying now to Australia, UK, China and Taiwan;

The future:
2010 – AirAsia X Middle East (not the official name of the airline); hub: Abu Dhabi (UAE);
Flights to Europe. Interest countries UK, Germany and some not named yet central and eastern european ones. Cairo and Nairobi also in Air Asia X plans.

unknown – Air Asia X America (not the official name of the airline); hub: Kuala Lumpur;
Flights to California, New York and Hawai.

unknown – Air Asia X Europe (not the official name of the airline);

So… as you can see Air Asia is expanding operation little by little, as it happened with the airlines in the Virgin group. Sir Richard Branson (owner of a 20% stake in Air Asia X) seem to apply his Virgin philosophy in this asian career. Don’t you think so? Is only me seeing this parallel story of the two aviation groups?