Malaysia’s AirAsia X has announced plans to fly to Istanbul from November, marking its foray into Europe following a network expansion in Central Asia.
The medium-haul, low-cost operator will begin flying to the Turkish city from Kuala Lumpur from 14 November, with four flights a week operated by Airbus A330-300s.
Says AirAsia X CEO Benyamin Ismail: “Istanbul has always been a dream destination for many of our guests, and its launch marks another proud moment in our journey to rebuild stronger than ever…[This] long-awaited route takes us one step closer to delivering longer connectivity across continents.”
AirAsia X will be the second operator on the Kuala Lumpur-Istanbul route after Turkish Airlines. However, unlike the latter, it will be operating to Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen International Airport.
The carrier, which will soon be combined with sister operator AirAsia, had long teased plans to return to Europe, which it briefly served in the early 2010s. The launch of Istanbul comes weeks after AirAsia X disclosed plans to fly to Tashkent – its second Central Asia point after Almaty.
Separately, Singapore-based Scoot announced the expansion of its Japan network, as it takes over routes formerly operated by now-shuttered low-cost operator Jetstar Asia.
The low-cost arm of Singapore Airlines will be launching flights to Okinawa from 15 December, with thrice-weekly flights operated on A320-family jets.
Jetstar Asia had previously operated to Okinawa before its abrupt closure in late-July and was the sole operator of the route. Scoot had previously confirmed it would be taking over some of Jetstar Asia’s former network where it was the sole operator, such as Okinawa and Labuan Bajo in Indonesia.
Scoot will also begin flying to Tokyo’s Haneda airport from 1 March 2026, deploying its Boeing 787s for the daily operations. The new flights are on top of existing flights to Tokyo’s Narita airport.
In Southeast Asia, the airline will launch flights to Chiang Rai in northern Thailand from 1 January 2026. The five weekly flights will be operated by its Embraer E190 E2s, making it one of the longest routes on Scoot’s network to be operated by the type.
