AirAsia X has confirmed that it has chosen Bahrain as the Middle Eastern hub that will enable it to expand services into Europe and Africa, including daily flights to London Gatwick from mid-2026.
Parent company Capital A said last year that it was evaluating a possible AOC in the Gulf kingdom through which single-aisle aircraft could operate to destinations in Europe, Africa and other parts of the Middle East, and signed a preliminary agreement with Bahrain’s ministry of transportation in November.
Confirming the choice of Bahrain on 11 February, Capital A chief executive Tony Fernandes said: “Bahrain as our strategic aviation hub allows us to connect Asia with the Middle East and Europe more effectively while creating a scalable platform for future growth.”
On the same day, Gatwick airport confirmed that AirAsia X is set to make its long-promised return to Western European services this year, with daily flights to London Gatwick from its Kuala Lumpur home via a stop in Bahrain, launching on 26 June.
“Our return to London marks a significant milestone for AirAsia X and we’re excited to commence our operations at London Gatwick this June,” says Bo Lingham, chief executive of AirAsia Group. “This new daily route will enable UK travellers to seamlessly and affordably connect to Bahrain, Asean and beyond through our extensive ‘Fly-Thru’ connectivity spanning over 130 destinations worldwide.”
AirAsia X last served Western Europe in 2012, when it dropped direct services to London and Paris amid challenges in making the low-cost long-haul model financially viable, and has concentrated on medium-haul routes from Malaysia in recent years.
But it frequently talked of returning to Europe in the post-Covid period and launched direct flights to Istanbul from Kuala Lumpur at the end of last year.
Although AirAsia Group’s long-term plans appear to be focused on narrowbody-only flying – it has a memorandum of understanding in place for dozens of Airbus A321XLRs – AirAsia X will use Airbus A330 twinjets for the London flights.
AirAsia X has 19 A330-300s in its fleet today.
AirAsia Group previously said it expects to operate more than 25 daily flights via Bahrain by 2030.
Capital A in January completed the restructuring of its aviation operations through the sale of its carriers to the AirAsia X arm, creating a single entity called AirAsia Group.
