AirAsia’s winning of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation’s Airline of the Year 2007 award has sparked a ticket rush. In recognition of the award, the budget airline has put on offer 400,000 specially-priced tickets. Bookings have doubled overnight.

An AirAsia official said the popular period of travel was January and March while the top-selling destinations including Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Langkawi, Shenzen, Bali and Bangkok. Besides this, AirAsia-X tickets to the Gold Coast in Australia are also being snapped up.

The promotion was launched on Tuesday and bookings must be made before Nov 25, with the travel period fixed from Jan 8 to April 30. (more…)

The chief executive officer of AirAsia Bhd, Datuk Tony Fernandes does not want marble floors, travellators or aero-bridges at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT). On the contrary, he wants more seating, less passenger congestion, better flight information and more retail outlets.

In short, he wants Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB), to improve facilities and services at the terminal. AirAsia passenger volume has grown from 200,000 five years ago to 18 million currently, and going to hit 30 million in five years.

AirAsia has recently been named Airline of the Year 2007 by the Centre of Asia Pacific Aviation was testimony to its rapid progress. (more…)

To save you time in your planning, bookmark the airline websites that offer pages. Don’t make the mistake of thinking the “deals” or “promotions” are strictly hype. They are worth scanning at the start of your shopping experience.

These listings are organized by continent, with Asian and Australian airlines listed below:

Air China has a deals page, but it sometimes takes a while for the pages to load.

Air India serves up a few offers on its “Savings for the Early Bird” page.

Cathay Pacific will email you their last-minute deals that are available for 48 hours only.

Dragonair is one of China’s most popular airlines. This links to their fare page, useful in comparison shopping.

Hainan Air flies throughout China and offers a “travel keeper” service in which 65-80% discounts are possible if you’re willing to risk not getting the flight of your choice.

JAL makes its promotional offers from the home page.

Jetstar is an Australian carrier with service connections to Honolulu and throughout Asia.

Qantas is a major world airline based in Australia. It offers a Web Deals and Stopovers page that is linked here.

Regional Express flies to smaller Australian airports from hubs in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.

Singapore Airlines posts its Best of the Web fares on the home page.

Skywest serves Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Bali.

Virgin Blue serves Australia and is related to Virgin Atlantic. Check out their “Happy Hour” pricing.