AirAsia X takes Delivery of New Airbus A330

AirAsia X, the low-cost, long-haul affiliate of AirAsia, has taken delivery of its first brand-new Airbus A330 aircraft. The delivery is the first from an order AirAsia X placed for 25 Airbus A330 aircraft earlier this year, and comes just weeks after AirAsia switched its entire Malaysian operations to an all Airbus A320 fleet.

AirAsia in Thailand and Indonesia are also gradually phasing out their existing Boeing 737s to be replaced with Airbus A320s. AirAsia became the largest airline customer in the world of the Airbus A320, after placing an firm order for a total of 175 aircraft plus an option for 50 more, in December 2007.

Since launching in November 2007 AirAsia X has operated its low-cost, long-haul services to Hangzhou, China and Gold Coast, Australia with one leased A330. The airline has since recorded sales of over 350,000 seats almost a year into operations. AirAsia X launched flights between Kuala Lumpur to Perth on 2 November 2008 and will being Kuala Lumpur - Melbourne services on 12 November 2008.

About 20% of AirAsia X’s inbound guests to Malaysia stay in Kuala Lumpur while the rest travel to other AirAsia destinations, both in Malaysia and the region. AirAsia operates over 100 routes covering more than 60 destinations in South East Asia and China. It will start flying to Tiruchirapalli, India from 1 December 2008.

ASIATravelTips.com, Thailand