Tony Fernandes CEO Blog

Hi guys, I would like to apologise for another slack moment on my part. The past 3 months have not only been hectic but erratic. There was a period of 10 days or so that I actually circumvented the globe not once but thrice! Phew…

However, I must say it has been the most fruitful 3 months of my life. And, I would like to share with all of you insights of each event here starting on my recent trip to Paris Air Show at Le Bourget.

The brand new Airbus A320 NEO that will paint the sky RED!

Some of you might have read that AirAsia has concluded at the Paris Air Show the largest ever Airbus deal by number of aircraft as well as the largest ever order for aircraft in the A320 family worth US$18.5 billion. This order makes up of 200 firm orders of Airbus A320 NEO aircraft. Together with the existing 175 firm orders of Airbus A320 Classic, AirAsia is now recognized as the world’s largest airline customer of Airbus in history with an order of 375 A320 family aircraft to date.

As much as I am surprised, I’m extremely proud at the same time to learn of this. This is an important milestone in our growth, and this solidifies our position as the world’s best low-cost airline. I can still recall we first penned an order with Airbus for 40 A320 Classic aircraft back in December 2004; 6 and half years on, we increased the size of order more than 9 folds. This is incredible and a tremendous achievement for an airline that is only 10 years old. With the promising growth of our sister airlines in Thailand and Indonesia and the upcoming Philippines and Vietnam operations, I believe AirAsia, as a group, have the capacity to take up to 500 aircraft. This is backed by the continuous growth of the number of passenger we have served, from an annual passenger volume of 200,000 when we first launched as a low-cost airline in 2001 to an estimated 31 million this year.

At this juncture, I would like to attribute all honour flowing from here to my loyal and faithful management team that is ever ready in embracing innovation and technological advancements.

With the introduction of the Airbus A320 NEO aircraft, guests of AirAsia can look forward to more exciting routes over and above the 130 routes over 63 destinations in South East Asia, China, India and Australia via Bali, Indonesia that AirAsia is flying to. This is made possible by the enhanced range of this new-generation aircraft. I’m sure my route planning guys are now having a ball of time identifying destinations that are beyond the 4 hours’ range (a limitation placed on the A320 Classic) for once! This new generation of Airbus A320 NEO aircraft will definitely put us ahead of the competition and continue to be frontrunners in the ever volatile aviation industry.

Aside from the commercial benefit of enhanced range, the decision of taking up the A320 NEO aircraft is also to fulfil one of my personal crusades. Comes with large sharklets wing tip devices that boost fuel efficiency, which will enables savings of approximately 15% in fuel consumption per annum per aircraft also meant a reduction of carbon footprint by AirAsia aircraft in a world now that is already plagued by numerous natural disasters of late.

Enough said, I guess the best way to share is still visual appreciation as with the famous song goes “a picture paints a thousand words”:

Din, me and Tom Enders CEO of Airbus; and at the side are John Leahy Commercial Director Airbus and Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz Chairman of AirAsia X

Din, me, Tom and John

A cool picture of the AirAsia and GE team; me, Amin, Chris, Aireen, Kevin, Azhari and Stuart