AirAsia Aviation Group group CEO Bo Lingam.
SEPANG: Capital A Bhd
’s unit, AirAsia Aviation Group Ltd (AAG), yesterday took delivery of four brand new Airbus A321neo aircraft.
The new aircraft that are leased from AerCap will help fuel its growth as the resurgence in travel and tourism continues unabated post-Covid-19 era.
Chief executive officer of AAG Bo Lingam said the group is expected to take delivery of another five of such aircraft by the end of this year.
He noted the routes which are seeing the strongest demand in air travel in its network today are from India and the Asean region.
“India is number one and then number two is Asean – our flights from Jakarta and Singapore are always full,” Lingam said at the ceremony to take delivery of the aircraft at its headquarters here yesterday.
The arrival of the four aircraft saw the immediate commencement of its flight operations for use under two of its airlines: AirAsia Malaysia and AirAsia Thailand.
“The savings in terms of fuel efficiency and so forth are close to 10%. Also, these aircraft are single-aisle with 240 seats and can fly further,” he said.
They will provide greater flexibility on short to medium-haul routes such as Kuching, Tawau, Shenzhen, Kunming, Phuket, Krabi, Chiang Mai and more, the company said.
“These aircraft will also be a key enabler for our Fly-thru services that have been integral to our network growth, complementing our direct flights that connect our guests affordably to numerous unique and unexplored destinations around the world.
“AirAsia’s Fly-Thru guests have grown to 18% this year, and with the new aircraft, this is expected to increase to 25% by 2025,” said Lingam.Fly-Thru, which also means transit point, had seen growth for the group as more of its passengers have made a day or two stopovers in Kuala Lumpur before proceeding to their final destination on the AirAsia flight network.
Lingam said with these new deliveries, it will also give it space to eventually retire some older ones “We will maybe retire one or two next year and the following year (also),” Lingam said.
These additional planes expand the airline’s total fleet size to 221 aircraft, the group said.
With the addition of these four A321neos, AAG said it now had eight operational A321neos serving AirAsia Malaysia and AirAsia Thailand.
The group said the A321neo’s advanced technologies and fuel efficiency align perfectly with its goals of reducing operational costs while maintaining a superior travel experience for its guests.
The aircraft’s versatility allows it to land at smaller airports, serve secondary cities and scale up operations with 30% lower costs compared to wide-body aircraft, it noted.
“Moving forward, we anticipate our fleet exceeding 300 aircraft within the next five years, carrying over 100 million guests annually.
“This expansion marks the beginning of AirAsia’s new era as the world’s first low-cost network carrier, with the aim to connect Asean with the world and vice-versa,” Lingam said.
