SEPANG, Malaysia, 2 December 2019: AirAsia welcomes the future of its single-aisle fleet with the arrival of its first Airbus A321neo aircraft late last week.
This is the first of 353 A321neos on order by the AirAsia Group which will eventually replace the existing fleet of A320 and A320neo aircraft throughout the network covering Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, India and Japan.
With 236 seats – a 27% increase in capacity compared to AirAsia’s present fleet of A320 (180 seats) and A320neo (186 seats) – the A321neo will enable AirAsia to serve strong ongoing demand across the network with significant operational efficiencies and open up opportunities to explore new destinations, with more than 10% fuel savings.
AirAsia will initially operate the aircraft from its Kuala Lumpur hub to cities across Asia, with the first destinations including Kuching, Kota Kinabalu, Singapore, Bangkok and Shenzhen.
AirAsia Group CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said: “This new aircraft will be deployed on popular routes delivering growth opportunities to new markets and add extra capacity in existing markets, particularly where there are expansion constraints due to infrastructure or slot availability limitations.”
Earlier this year, AirAsia converted 253 orders for the A320neo to the larger A321neo version, with a total of 353 aircraft on order, making AirAsia one of the world’s largest customer for the A321neo.
AirAsia Group currently operates an exclusive Airbus fleet flying out of its hubs in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, India and Japan.
