Flight D7 2754 arrived in the gateway to the South Island with over 85% passenger load. The airline has also announced it will donate a percentage of each ticket purchased by every passenger travelling to and from New Zealand to help fund the restoration of some of the Christchurch’s most iconic buildings.

It’s targeting to raise RM500,000 (NZD220,000) within 12 months, said Azran.

“We’ve already seen the concerns of prospective travellers and queries for change of flight dates have dropped.

“Having now toured the city myself, I can also see that the people of Christchurch have moved on from “recovery” to a “rebuild, rebound and move on” mindset.

“For long-haul travel, it’s not merely about low fares. It’s about the strength of the destination. And New Zealand has an amazingly popular destination brand.

“Visiting New Zealand is on many people’s ‘bucket list’. The low fares is merely the enabler, also aided by the fact that we are addressing a limited supply route.”

Asked too how its Japan services were doing, Azran said its Tokyo route represented less than five percent of its business, as it’s only allowed three times weekly services.

“We did see a significant drop in near term demand (up to May 2011) but sales beyond May are already starting to come back. Our Japanese shareholders and operations team there also tell us that life is returning to normalcy in Tokyo.

“We’re confident that this market will rebound as other major markets that have faced similar adversities have done in the past. If we were given rights to increase our flight frequency to Haneda to a daily service, we would not hesitate for a moment to start more flights.”

Asked how AirAsia X with its longhaul services would benefit from the recently-announced joint venture between AirAsia and Expedia, he said, “The key is the potential to tap their loyal customer base in their strong and growing markets – allowing us to extend our brand quickly to new customers. We’ll especially be paying close attention to new business generated by Expedia from Europe, Japan and Australia.”

The Christchurch service by AirAsia X is anticipated to introduce 70,000 new visitors to New Zealand in the first year of operation – nearly half that which will be achieved by the Rugby World Cup.

Picture show, from left, Canterbury Tourism CEO Tim Hunter, CEO of Christchurch International Airport- Jim Bolt, Malaysian High Commissioner- His Excellency Dato’ Hasnudin Hamzah, Mayor of Christchurch Bob Parker, CEO of AirAsia X-Azran Osman-Rani and Dean of Christchurch Cathedral, Peter Beck at the inaugural launch ceremony of the Kuala Lumpur to Christchurch route.