After a long campaign to secure landing rights in Singapore, Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia "is no longer interested" in the lucrative short-haul route.

"We are going to other places," chief executive Tony Fernandes told AFP over the weekend.

"Even the people in Singapore are getting frustrated" with the fact that AirAsia has not been given rights to fly there, he added.

The airline currently serves Singapore from Johor. In October, it accused Singapore of discrimination after it awarded the long sought-after landing rights to an Indonesian carrier.

Fernandes previously said that Singapore was "a country that is supposed to welcome open competition, but they are scared of us" because the city-state's own budget carriers are struggling.

While AirAsia reported a net profit of RM111.63 million ringgit for the year ended June, budget airline Tiger Airways, a unit of state-owned Singapore Airlines, and JetStar Asia, in which the government has a stake, are unprofitable, the Financial Times said last month.

Fernandes said AirAsia would continue to push to open new routes to other Southeast Asian countries like Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos, Indonesia and Brunei, as well as routes to southern China.

"We will open up new destinations. People can go to Bali and Bangkok to shop. It is going to be a loss for Singapore," he said.

AirAsia was launched in December 2001 with just two aircraft and has since become a significant regional player, with its business model increasingly imitated by national carriers and a host of new low-cost entrants.

The airline covers most major cities in Southeast Asia, linking Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Macau, Vietnam, Cambodia, Xiamen in China and the Philippines.