Airbus bags huge order from AirAsia

In one of the biggest orders in recent times, European consortium Airbus Industrie has signed a contract to supply 40 A-320 aircraft to leading Asian low-cost carrier AirAsia, which has also taken the option for another 30 of these planes.

This would bring their total orders for the single-aisle aircraft from the Airbus family to 100.  AirAsia, which currently operates seven A-320s besides Boeings, would completely replace its B 737-300 fleet with the newly-ordered A-320s, the airline said.

The AirAsia Group comprises the airline units in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia and all of their A-320s would be configured with 180 economy seats. AirAsia is one of the several low-cost carriers in the Asia-Pacific region, including India, which have taken A-320 family of aircraft in their fleet.

More than 520 A-320 family of planes, comprising A-318s, A-319s, A-320s and A-321s, are in service with 39 airlines in the region, with total orders from Asia-Pacific now close to 1,000 aircraft.