Malaysia's AirAsia X starts Sydney-KL flights April 2

    AirAsia X is will begin daily flights from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur on April 2nd, giving business travellers to Malaysia an alternative to national flag-carrier MAS.

The low-cost airline's daily service from Sydney (D7-223) will depart at 10.55am and arrive into Kuala Lumpur at 5.25pm; the return red-eye (flight D7-222) will leave KL at 11.45pm for wheels down into Sydney at 9.45am the next day.

(The first KL-Sydney flight will depart Kuala Lumpur on April 1st.)

The service will run on an Airbus A330 with a 'Premium' business class cabin of 12 seats which convert into an inclined or sloping flat-bed (as opposed to a 'lie-flat' bed which collapses into a fully horizontal position).

But with 20 inch seat width, 60 inches of pitch (and a 77 inch length when fully reclined), laptop power and all the other usual niceties, matched to the KL-based challenger's keen prices, it could prove a compelling alternative to Malaysia Airlines...

One caveat is that travellers will arrive at Kuala Lumpur's drab Low Cost Carrier Terminal, which is almost a 'second airport' without any integration into KLIA.

Another is that, with AirAsia X dropping flights from KL to London (and Paris) from the end of March, we'll miss out on a cost-effective KL version of the Kangaroo Route