Malaysian budget airline Air Asia has restarted stalled talks with Hong Kong's international airport over landing rights in the Chinese territory, a report said today.

Negotiations last year ended in acrimony with the airport refusing to budge on its high landing charges.

But a delegation of Air Asia chiefs were back at the table over the weekend, the South China Morning Post reported, following criticism from the travel industry over a lack of low-cost options at the city's hub.

"They are talking to us and service providers," an airport source was quoted as saying in the Post . "We are talking to a number of carriers."

Air Asia is the most successful of the handful of budget carriers to have appeared in the region.

Based in Kuala Lumpur, it cuts costs by landing at secondary airports that charge lower landing fees and cuts out some in-flight services.

After last year's talks broke down, Air Asia chief executive Tony Fernandes instead negotiated landing rights in nearby Macau's new airport.

Hong Kong's government-controlled airport authority has been accused of turning its back on cheap airlines in order to boost its earnings ahead of a planned partial privatisation.