AirAsia (AK, Kuala Lumpur International) is looking at ordering around 100 regional jets and is in technical talks with Airbus, Embraer, and COMAC, according to a recent Aviation Week report. Any order would represent a break away from the all-A320 Family fleet that AirAsia carriers operate and potentially end AirAsia's status as an Airbus-only operator.
Bo Lingam, CEO of AirAsia Aviation Group, says the low-cost airline group, which includes the Malaysian operator as well as joint ventures AirAsia Cambodia, Indonesia AirAsia, Philippines AirAsia, and Thai AirAsia wants the ability to rapidly scale its operations and meet the growing demand for low-cost travel across Asia and Africa. He told ch-aviation the regional jet discussions were in the preliminary stage, and there was no particular lean towards any manufacturer at this stage.
The AirAsia Group had 221 aircraft in its fleet as of September 30, 2024, with 181 aircraft available for operations, including spares. Lingam says the active fleet will grow to 205 aircraft by the end of 2024, and 233 by the end of 2025. Since resuming deliveries from its existing order book in mid-2024, AirAsia has taken delivery of four new A321-200NX with five more due soon. Aside from any future regional jet order, AirAsia has 334 A321-200NX and thirty-six A321-200NX(LR)s on order.
AirAsia may use any future regional jets to connect more secondary airports, which is part of its strategy of pursuing broader growth in Asia-Pacific by 2027 and developing Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) as a top-tier hub. It also replicates the model being deployed by Scoot (TR, Singapore Changi), who have started using their recently arrived E190-E2s to link smaller cities in Southeast Asia to Singapore and build out their network.
Tony Fernandes, CEO of Capital A, the entity that ultimately controls the AirAsia carriers, says he wants to position Malaysia and KLIA "as a central hub for affordable global connectivity.”
AirAsia currently accounts for 43% of KLIA's flights and 74% of the airport's total LCC capacity. Fernandes says its longer-term network strategy is to rival large Middle Eastern hubs such as Dubai International. However, relatively few operators presently use regional jets on services to and from KLIA. The ch-aviation schedules modules indicates the only carrier doing so is MAI - Myanmar Airways International (8M, Yangon), which operates thrice weekly roundtrips from Yangon using E190s.
