Air Asia will open a new nonstop route from Kuala Lumpur to Hainan starting from May 2008, increasing its number of nonstop routes to China to five.

Prior to this, Air Asia had opened nonstop routes from Kuala Lumpur to Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Macau. The company said that the two routes to Shenzhen and Macau were a success and have improved the company's brand awareness around China.

Chen Kailin, executive vice president of the business department of Air Asia, said that Air Asia will provide consistent no-frills services for passengers on the new route. Malaysians who were born in China or want to visit to Hainan will benefit from it, and so will Chinese tourists.