KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: Long-haul budget airline AirAsia X is likely to drop plans to fly to Japan next year due to tough visa rules, said a top official with the airline.

"Give me a chance now and I'd rather fly to South Korea, the Middle East and India ... other countries are competing for Malaysian tourists," AirAsia X chief executive officer Azran Osman-Rani told AFP in an interview.

"To get a Japanese visa, a Malaysian has to visit the embassy in Kuala Lumpur twice and even then the person is not sure a visa will be issued," he said.

The Australian-based Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (Capa) said recently that Japan's highly restrictive visa system virtually rules out AirAsia X from starting a service in 2009 as it had planned.

Capa said Japan would have to remove the visa restrictions to make it attractive to regional budget carriers.

Azran said that when he visited airports in Japan earlier this month, the operators were eager to accept AirAsia X flights to "compensate" as full-service carriers like Qantas had cut back their frequencies.

An affiliate of regional low-cost carrier AirAsia and Virgin Group, AirAsia X was launched in January 2007.

Meanwhile, AirAsia has extended its service to Makassar's main gateway, the Hasanuddin International Airport, making it the first international airline to service the route.

The airport in Sulawesi, Indonesia, connects to other international routes via Kuala Lumpur and domestic destinations in the region.