AirAsia to charge check-in fee amid rising fuel costs

Southeast Asia's largest budget carrier, AirAsia will charge a 10 ringgit (3.3 U.S. dollars) check-in fee for flights booked from Sept. 21 onwards to counter rising jet fuel prices, AirAsia said in a statement on Wednesday. The surcharge, the airline said, would only affect passengers using the conventional check-in counters, not the web or self- service kiosks. The airline said the surcharge was to offset escalating fuel costs and encourage passengers to check in online. The announcement came two days after the Malaysian Airports Holdings Bhd, the airport company that manages most of the airports in Malaysia, announced an increase in airport taxes, from 51 ringgit (17.12 U.S. dollars) previously to 65 ringgit (21.82 U. S. dollars) from September. The company also hiked aircraft parking and landing charges, which additional costs analysts said would likely to be passed onto passengers by the two main airlines in the country AirAsia and the Malaysia Airlines. AirAsia, which began operating in 1996 was the first no frills airline in the region that utilizes a fully ticketless air travel system. Last year, the airline's long-haul fleet, AirAsia X achieved a revenue of 1.3 billion ringgit (436.46 million U.S. dollars) with a net profit of 80 million ringgit (26.85 million U.S. dollars) from carrying some 1.92 million passengers.