Reports have confirmed that the budget carrier AirAsia will be launching flights from Malaysia to five major Indian cities in 2010. The airline plans to carry about two million passengers a year with these new routes.

The new cities that AirAsia will be flying to include Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, New Delhi and Mumbai. The carrier already flies from its Kuala Lumpur base to the Indian destinations of Kochi, Kolkata, Trichy and Trivandrum.

The founder of AirAsia, Tony Fernandes, said that the carrier and its Kuala Lumpur hub were being positioned as a gateway between India and the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Tony went on to say that AirAsia has done well in the Indian market. It has change the very definition of low cost airlines as the Indian market starts to boom.

Ong Tee Keat, the Malaysia Transport Minister, said that the route expansion would help fuel tourism to Malaysia. He went on to say that with a large number of Malaysians of Indian origin, they think that Indian visitors will find themselves on familiar ground.

Fernandes has appealed for flexibility from Malaysian authorities who have recently tightened their visa regulations in an attempt to curb illegal emigration. However, they hoped to particularly stop illegal emigration from the southern city of Chennai.

The Prime Minister of Malaysia, after an official visit to India, hoped to introduce a new visa regime that would make it a lot easier for India executives, business people and tourists to visit Malaysia. Fernandes said that AirAsia, is now the region’s fourth largest carrier. The carrier launched back in December of 2001.