He said allegations that the the airline, which is AirAsia’s affiliate, dropped the routes to accommodate and establish a business strategy with Malaysia Airlines (MAS) was untrue and “irritating”.

AirAsia X recently announced services from its Kuala Lumpur hub to Mumbai would be axed from January 31, New Delhi (March 22), Paris (March 30) and London (March 31).  Read story here.

“Azran Osman Rani (AirAsia X’s CEO) made a business decision. We were the first to introduce a low cost long haul airline model and now the Singaporeans are following suit,” Fernandes was quoted by Bernama, Malaysia’s national news agency, as saying.

“In this case, he (Azran) discovered that the best profitability is to have between four to eight hour (routes), with one type of engine and aircraft, which is the Airbus 330.”

As such the airline’s move to scrap the four routes has nothing to do with MAS or AirAsia, Fernandes added.

“On the flip side, Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari is hearing that the routes suspension is to accommodate AirAsia,” said Fernandes.

He also that it was good that MAS and AirAsia could collaborate in certain areas, but wrong to say this would destroy competition.

In a related development, AirAsia X’s decision to suspend its Kuala Lumpur-London route from March 30 is expected to affect most of the over 14,000 Malaysian students pursuing their studies in the UK.

Since the launch of the service in March 2009, the budget long-haul airline had been the first choice to many of them to travel home from the UK because of its affordable fares and good services.