Thursday, February 22, 2024
Today, AirAsia unveiled groundbreaking plans to pioneer the world’s inaugural low-cost network carrier, harnessing 22 years of expertise in its unique multi-hub strategy across Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and soon, Cambodia.
This announcement took place during the welcoming ceremony for Christian Scherer, the newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of Airbus’ Commercial Aircraft business, at RedQ – AirAsia’s corporate headquarters in Malaysia. Hundreds of AirAsia staff, CEOs, and management enthusiastically welcomed Scherer on his inaugural visit as CEO to the home of over 6,000 team members, affectionately known as Allstars.
Tony Fernandes, CEO of Capital A, the umbrella company for the AirAsia aviation group of airlines, said: “All of our achievements, including becoming one of the largest and most popular airlines in the world, have been possible with our great partnership with Airbus. Their versatile aircraft provide the best fit for our network expansion plan, with the continuous developments and improvements to the aircraft, improved fuel efficiency, increase in payload and in range capabilities, all of which offer unrivalled economics for our commitment to consistently deliver best value, high quality service.
“We look forward to expanding our narrow-body fleet with the introduction of the A321XLR and exploring opportunities with the A321LR, which will gradually replace our workhorse A320 predecessor over the coming years from our key hubs including Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila and more. These new specification aircraft will enable greater flexibility on existing short to medium-haul routes and network expansion to places we have never flown before, including to exciting secondary markets such as North Asia, Australia and Central Asia from Southeast Asia.
“With our wide-body Airbus A330 fleet including the introduction of A330neo, we are also looking to expand our medium to long-haul network to the European continent, to cities like London, Paris, Amsterdam, Bratislava, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Africa (Cairo, Nairobi, Cape Town), East Coast North America (New York, Miami, Toronto) via Europe and West Coast North America (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vancouver) via Japan.”
The event held today commemorated the enduring and robust partnership of over two decades between Airbus and AirAsia, presently recognized as the World’s Best Low-Cost Airline for an unprecedented 14 consecutive years by Skytrax, serving nearly 800 million guests to date. It signifies a transformative phase as AirAsia charts its course to become the world’s inaugural low-cost network carrier, employing a hub-and-spoke model complemented by multiple virtual hubs across Asia, Europe, Africa, and the United States in the forthcoming era.
Tony continued: “Airbus’ continuous support and commitment to AirAsia is a testament to our partnership and I cannot thank Christian and the Airbus team enough. Throughout all odds, we managed to survive and come back better, stronger than ever.
“Our commitment to Airbus never faltered, even through the pandemic. As one of their biggest customers, we have an orderbook of 647 aircraft consisting of 612 A320 Family and 35 A330 Family aircraft with another 362 A321neo, 20 A321XLR and 15 A330neo to be delivered over the next decade as we set our sights on growing bigger than ever in the future.”
From its humble beginnings with just two aircraft in 2001, AirAsia swiftly transitioned to an all-Airbus fleet, conducting thorough assessments to determine the optimal aircraft type for the regional low-cost model. This strategic choice has facilitated over two decades of unparalleled success through a distinctive multi-hub approach across its airlines in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines – with the upcoming launch of AirAsia Cambodia anticipated in the coming months.
AirAsia is poised to resume its Airbus A321neo deliveries this year in response to robust forecasted demand, with the first post-pandemic delivery slated for June. Notably, AirAsia will emerge as one of the foremost operators of this new-generation, longer-range, fuel-efficient narrow-body aircraft, poised to reshape the aviation landscape.
Sunday, April 28, 2024
Sunday, April 28, 2024
Sunday, April 28, 2024
