Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia will launch new services to Hong Kong later this year, a spokesman said Thursday, the latest sign that the city's luring of cheaper airlines was paying dividends.

AirAsia is planning to start daily flights from Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok to Hong Kong in December in response to demand and as part of their Asian expansion plans, spokeswoman Janet Leow told AFP.

AirAsia's chief executive Tony Fernandes added the carrier would also launch new daily routes from the Malaysian city Kota Kinabalu, according to a report in the South China Morning Post, but the spokeswoman was unable to confirm the route.

Fernandes added that the move was a long-held ambition for the airline, which entered the greater Chinese market with flights to Macau and Shenzhen, but had previously resisted because of Hong Kong's high landing prices.

He said improved incentives from the airport had tipped the balance in favour of offering the new service, and hinted their may be more routes in the future.

"It is a good start in response to the good gesture from the Hong Kong government," Fernandes said.

A Hong Kong airport authority spokesman told AFP the move followed a new package announced last year to target small carriers, which sees a 75 percent rebate in landing charges during the first six months to new destinations and lower parking rates.

Fernandes praised the discount and said one-way tickets to Bangkok would start at 300 Hong Kong dollars (38 US dollars) not including taxes, and 400 dollars to Kuala Lumpur.

Fernandes also told the Wall Street Journal that AirAsia was in talks with Airbus to buy a further 25 A320 jetliners, in a deal which could be worth 1.63 billion US dollars, to meet its expanding network's demands.

AirAsia earlier this month unveiled a new deal with Richard Branson's Virgin Airlines to develop AirAsia X, the long-haul budget carrier which hopes to build a network of long-haul flights across Asia, Europe and the Middle East.