Australians were wildly happy when Indonesia AirAsia X announced new direct flights from Melbourne to Denpasar from $99 back in October 2014. However, the celebration quickly ended when everyone realized that the inaugural flight never left the ground.
With permission from the appropriate Indonesian authorities to kick off the route, tickets were selling quick and the flight was set to launch on December 26, 2014. However, what Indonesia AirAsia X (long-time affiliate of KL-based AirAsia X) did not have was all the permissions from Australian regulators to fly into Oz, according to a blog on the Wall Street Journal.
While AirAsia has offered refunds or credit vouchers to make up for the cancelled flights, customers have expressed that they are thoroughly pissed off and disappointed with the airline.
According to the WSJ blog, it’s normal for airlines to start selling tickets before getting all approvals cleared by Australians regulators, but customers do need to be told that the flights are subject to regulatory approval.
The crash of AirAsia QZ8501 resulting in the death of 162 people on board did not help matters for the airline. Now Australian authorities reportedly want to thoroughly review the airline before giving it the green light to fly into Melbourne.
On Monday, a spokesman for Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) said no decision has been made on whether AirAsia X is clear to fly in to Australia. “We factor in all relevant safety and regulatory information at the time an application is being assessed,” the spokesman said, as quoted by the WSJ blog post.
