KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: Travellers are in for a treat as budget airline AirAsia is going all out to compete with Malaysia Airline's Everyday Low Fare promotion by launching its own Sub-Zero campaign today.

The low-cost carrier will not only offer passengers more than one million tickets at zero fare, it is also offering RM5 off on fuel surcharge for domestic routes.

The domestic offer is for the travelling period between June 10 this year and April 30 next year.

The booking period is for the next four days.

AirAsia charges fuel surcharge of RM16 for domestic flights that do not cross the South China Sea and RM43 for flights between the peninsula and Sabah and Sarawak.

A one-way trip from KLIA to Kuala Terengganu during the zero fare campaign will start from as low as RM17 (including fuel surcharge and airport tax) while a trip to Kota Kinabalu from here could be as low as RM44.

On Wednesday, AirAsia will launch its offer for international routes for the travelling period between Jan 12 till April 30 next year. The tickets must be booked online by Friday.

These offers come a week after MAS came out with its Zero Fare campaign. The booking period for that campaign is from May 5 to 19 for travel from June 10 to Dec 18.

AirAsia group chief executive officer Datuk Tony Fernandes said the budget carrier's latest campaigns showed that the airline knows what travellers want.

"No one knows the low-cost business like AirAsia," he added.

However, MAS is set to come up with its zero fare campaign for Asean routes next week.

Both of MAS' promotions for domestic and Asean routes may become a permanent feature because the seats on offer are "not sold".

The national carrier said 30% of the seats are set aside for these offers.

With the combination of offers from the two airlines, travellers are looking at over three million cheap tickets on offer. -The Star, ANN