Several airline offer connections from Southeast Asia into Turkey, Jordan Air, Singapore Airlines and Malaysia are three currently operating into Istanbul.

AirX sees an opportunity, in the current economic slump to establish a new connection, which would have the advantage of links into destination in addition to Istanbul e.g. Jeddah, Sivas and various other destinations in Turkey.

4.2  Market Segments

One way of segmenting the potential market is by product i.e. by potential destination.

The Umrah

AirX believe that Muslims performing the Umrah would like to include a side-trip into Turkey. In a survey conducted last year, it was found that of the 110,000 people who performed the Umrah some 40% had wanted to go to Istanbul before heading to Jeddah. But they could not find an airline to make this trip and just 5,000 succeeded in going to Istanbul.

Christian pilgrims

Christians, equally, would find such  Turkish destination as Ephasus, with the shrine of the Virgin Mary's home and the burial place of St. John the Baptist, an attractive destination.
 

Health Spas

Pamukkale and Siva are two international renewed health spas which, while currently popular with Europeans, could be expected to attract Asian tourist.

Business Travelers

A number of Turkish companies operate in Malaysia and a number of Malaysian companies operate in Turkey. Malaysia, for instance, is trying hard to export Protons to the Turkish car market- a very competitive market with many existing attractive options e.g. German and other European models as well as the popular Japanese and Korean models. Such business activity will require substantial marketing effort, which will demand travel to and from Turkey by business travelers.

Tourist Potential between Turkey and Malaysia
Turkey

Tourism is a very well developed industry in Turkey accounting for as much as 25% of all foreign exchange earnings. Malaysians will undoubtedly be attracted to such destinations as identified in the market segments mentioned above.

Malaysia

Outgoing tourist traffic from Turkey is increasing especially to Southeast Asia. AirX would expect to share in that market growth. Malaysian urgently needs to develop and market its tourist attractions if I expect to share in earnings from that market.

The Economic Situation: Threat or Opportunity?

AirX has stated:
          While a lot of big carriers may shy away from entering the Malaysian market due to the economic slowdown, we believe that this is an opportune time to establish ourselves on this route.