Malaysian long haul carrier Air Asia X has planned to scrap its unprofitable routes to Europe and India. The carrier that is planning to list itself in the near future independently from its low cost pioneer parent Air Asia, is ceasing operations to Mumbai from January 2012, while services to New Delhi, London and Paris will cease in March 2012.

The airline is citing weak European economy/reduced demand, continued high fuel prices and high airport and government taxes including 1 Jan 2012 carbon tax as the reasons for discontinuation of its services.

London and Paris were the only European destinations that the low carrier was flying and this effectively puts an end to its ambitions to fly to those sectors unless the current European crisis subsides or a decision is taken with regards to the EU carbon tax.

The airline plans to focus back on its core strengths in Australasia,China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea and also introduce new routes in these sectors to build up on its strength with taking on current long haul services from Jetstar and soon to be launched Singapore Airlines subsidiary Scoot.

With regards to India, the airlines strategy was flawed right from the start, In markets like India where low-cost carriers also use agents and travel sites to sell their capacity, Air Asia tried to go solo and bombed big time with poor load factors. The airline tried to tackle the market with its usual strategy but forgot that the Indian markets are not the usual low cost markets with the typical low cost facilities and hence suffered from high airport costs and fuel charges.

The airline plans to continue operating its remaining routes in India but with Indian airlines also moving in these sectors it remains to be seen how does it plan to tackle them.

BA is cementing its presence at its London-Heathrow (LHR) hub by buying 6 daily slot pairs from the troubled airline bmi British Midland International.

As reported by BA parent, International Airlines Group (IAG) in a press release, “BA plans to use these slots from late October 2011 for operating more long-haul and short haul flights”. This is a big boost for the OneWorld alliance and a dent for the Star Alliance presence at the major hub in London.

bmi is the second largest operator out of Heathrow airport serving many destinations both within UK and internationally, Initial reports suggest that the deal could be worth €100m-€150m.

Of late bmi has been going through a series of troubles with its current parent Lufthansa planning to dispose it off instead of integrating it within the group. This slot sale is expected to bring much needed cash flow for the airline which will soon be starting operations to the Indian city of Amritsar from Heathrow airport which will enable many Non-Resident Indians based out of UK from the Indian state of Punjab to avoid the Delhi airport hassle. What remains to be seen is that will be able to turn the tide for the airline or will it be acquired by a competitor eyeing the lucrative Heathrow landing slots, only time will tell.

Singapore Airlines is offering 50% redemption discount on online redemptions for selected Singapore Airlines and SilkAir flights in Business and Economy Class. The flights need to be booked between 26 September and 9 October 2011 and the travel needs to be completed between 1 October and 30 November 2011 to benefit from this promotion.

The available destinations for this offer are:

These discounts are available for both one-way and round-trip redemption but not for applicable for Upgrades.
For more details check out the link here

Overall I think is good promotion to grab seats one some really nice routes at a huge discount. So if you have any travel plans during the offer period or just want to experience the SQ luxury in the A380 and B777-300ER then this is your shot at it for half the price. But you will need to hurry as i doubt the seats will last for long.