AirAsia recently shared its plan to become a true low-cost network airline with Airbus A321LR, A321XLR and A330Neo planes. Capital A, the owner of the AirAsia brand is in the middle of intergrating the mainline AirAsia and AirAsia X arms into a single entity, which plans to provide domestic, regional and international flights under a single unified brand.
Airbus A321LR joining the AirAsia fleet from 2025
As part of the restructuring plans, AirAsia announced that it is converting 36 of its A321Neo (new engine option) orders into A321LR (long range) models. The new A321LR is slated to be delivered starting from 2025.
“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.”
Tony Fernandes, Capital A CEO
The Airbus A321LR has a range of up to 8,300KM in a single-class configuration, while the A321NEO has a range of about 7,400KM in a single-class configuration. The A321XLR can fly for about 8,700KM. All three models enable AirAsia to run long and thin routes (i.e. flights that don’t require a wide body but are still over 5 hours) with ease and increased frequencies.
AirAsia would resume its Airbus A321neo deliveries in line with strong forecast demand, starting with the first post-pandemic delivery expected in June 2024 and another 24 aircraft throughout the year.
AirAsia plans to create a new hub and spoke model as the world’s first low-cost network carrier
The upcoming deliveries are part of the airline’s plan to become the world’s first low-cost network carrier, operating a hub and spoke model with several additional virtual hubs spanning Asia, Europe, Africa and the US in the future.
“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,” says Fernandes later on.
AirAsia has 647 planes on order with Airbus, 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.
The brand has several airlines under its wing, including Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, with AirAsia Cambodia ready to take flight in the coming months.
