AirAsia, Asia's leading low cost airline, plans to fly to Delhi, Kolkata and Amritsar via its Bangkok hub by the first half of next year, said group chief executive officer Tony Fernandes.

"The whole Indian sub-continent is going to be very exciting for AirAsia and the Malaysian tourism industry.

"By next year, (there will be) six routes from Malaysia to India while three via Thailand," he told reporters after the live video interview with the Indian media in conjunction with the Kuala Lumpur-Kolkata route launch today.

Kuala Lumpur-Kolkata was AirAsia's fourth route launched this year. The airline currently flies to Trichy, Kochin and Trivandrum. With frequency of two flights a day, Trichy is AirAsia's top ten profitable routes.

Fernandes said India was a huge market with 1.1 billion people, US$3.1 trillion economy and 20 potential airports.

There is a still room for AirAsia to tap the market, he added.

AirAsia will fly the Kuala Lumpur-Chennai and Kuala Lumpur-Bangalore routes by May next year, Penang-Chennai in April and Kuala Lumpur-Hyderabad in July.

For the Kuala Lumpur-Mumbai and Kuala Lumpur-Delhi routes, he said the destinations will be operated by AirAsia's long-haul affiliate, AirAsia X, by the end of next year.

- Bernama