AirAsia orders 100 Airbus A321neo worth US$12.5b at list price

PETALING JAYA: AirAsia placed an order for 100 A321neo, which carries a list price of US$12.5 billion in total, at the Farnborough Airshow in the UK yesterday.
The contract finalisation was announced by AirAsia Group CEO Tan Sri Tony Fernandes and Airbus president and CEO Fabrice Brégier, Airbus said in a statement.
The marks the first order placed by AirAsia for the largest model in the A320 Family. Seating up to 240 passengers in a single-class layout, the A321neo will enable the airline to increase capacity while benefiting from the lowest operating costs in the single-aisle category.
Yesterday’s announcement sees the total number of A320 family ordered by AirAsia rise to 575, reaffirming the carrier’s position as the largest airline customer for the Airbus single-aisle product line. To date, over 170 A320s have already been delivered to the airline and are flying with its units in Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines.
“AirAsia Group currently operates close to 1,000 flights per day to more than 120 destinations in 24 countries. We recorded a robust load factor of 85% in the first quarter of 2016, up 8 percentage points from the same period last year, and we are confident of maintaining this momentum going forward.
“The A321neo will help us to meet ongoing strong demand as well as further reduce our cost per Available Seat Kilometre across the group, which will translate to lower air fares for our guests. We would like to congratulate Airbus for producing the state-of-the-art A321neo aircraft that meets our requirements for efficient operations,” Fernandes said.
He added that the aircraft will be operated on its most popular routes and especially at airports with infrastructure constraints. It will allow AirAsia to bring higher passenger volumes with the same slots, therefore providing immediate benefits to the airports.
“These include, among others, more efficient operations, higher revenues from passenger service charges, and more airport retail purchases. We will also continue to maintain our 25-minute turnaround with two- or three-step boarding where permitted to ensure on-time performance,” Fernandes said.