AirAsia orders 20 Additional Airbus

AirAsia has signed a purchase contract for 60 Airbus A320s plus a further 40 options. This is an increase of an additional 20 aircraft on top of the original purchase agreement for 40 A320s order plus 40 options under the Memorandum of Understanding signed on 17th December 2004.

In making this order and option commitment for the A320, AirAsia has become the single largest customer for the aircraft in the Asia Pacific region.

AirAsia said it decided to up the Airbus order following the rollout and the success of its Indonesian operations, PT AWAIR International (AWAIR) in December 8th, 2004. Within 3 months of its operations, AWAIR has carried over 120 000 guests and introduced flights to 5 domestic destinations in Indonesia; Surabaya, Medan, Balikpapan, Bali and Padang from AWAIR’s hub in Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Jakarta.

Deliveries of the first A320s will commence in late 2005 and continue through until 2011. The A320s will completely replace the single aisle, 148 seat configuration Boeing 737-300s currently operated by the AirAsia Group (comprising AirAsia in Malaysia, Thai AirAsia in Thailand and AWAIR in Indonesia). AirAsia will operate a mixed fleet during this transition period.

Tony Fernandes, Group Chief Executive Officer, AirAsia Berhad said, “Our need for more aircraft is a direct response to the robust growth and exciting developments experienced by AirAsia including our sister companies, Thai AirAsia and AWAIR. These exciting developments include our debut in China, where Thai AirAsia will be the first low cost carrier to gain entry to the People’s Republic of China when direct services between Bangkok and Xiamen commence on 25th April 2005. We will also be starting simultaneous services to Clark, in the Philippines from KL International Airport and Kota Kinabalu International Airport in Sabah. There is more room for growth, and we will need these additional aircraft as part of our expansion program. 

We believe that we have applied the right strategy in delaying the deployment of leased Boeing 737 as we do not want to sacrifice our cost structure in order to address short term market aversions.”

The A320’s 180 seating capacity will be outfitted with the airline’s signature red carpet and plush leather seats.

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