The Tourism of New Zealand and Christchurch International Airport have grouped together to offer all the things required to bring AirAsia X across the line to bring new flights to Christchurch.

Last Friday, a team involving Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker, the chief executive of the airport, Jim Boult and the chief executive of the Tourism of NZ, Kevin Bowler, got together and zeroed in on a deal with the Malaysian-based cheap carrier.

AirAsia X, backed by Tony Fernandes, will offer four return services to Christchurch all the way from Kuala Lumpur, around March onwards. The airline will be ultimately offering full daily services if the flights are considerably full.

According to both Mr Boult and Mr Bowler, the purpose of these incentives are to aid in winning commitment from the new airline for Christchurch over all other destinations.

According to an industry analyst, these incentives were required to deal with low budget, cheap airlines. What these airlines wanted was to keep the landing charges to the minimum and get financial aid to get passengers to fill the seats.

An airport outside Australasia had offered to give the airlines free landing for 5 years to boost its launch services.