KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - Long-haul budget airline AirAsia X is likely to drop plans to fly to Japan next year, despite several airports having welcomed it, due to tough visa rules, a top official has said.

'Give me a chance now and I'd rather fly to Korea, the Middle East and India. . . Other countries are competing for Malaysian tourists,' AirAsia X chief executive officer, Azran Osman-Rani, told AFP in a weekend 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 Malaysia-based AirAsia X from starting a service in 2009 as it had planned.

CAPA said Japan would have to remove the visa restrictions - which are highly inconvenient to travellers with non-refundable low-cost tickets - to make it attractive to regional budget carriers.

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

'I am looking at all airports except Narita due to congestion and high costs,' he said, adding AirAsia X was keen to fly to Japan as a wealthy country with a huge population. 'If Japanese authorities were to come up with a good proposal, I will change my plan. -AFP