Last year, I had the opportunity to meet Tony Fernandes, the CEO of AirAsia Berhad and now Capital A. In addition, I was able to tour the AirAsia headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. I was blown away! AirAsia is a large airline with branches across the ASEAN area. However, little is known about AirAsia, so let me share its story and history with you.
AirAsia was most certainly not a fairy tale. They have grown from two aircraft and 250 people to over 100 planes and thousands of crew and employees globally! So, what is the backstory of Malaysia’s largest airline and the 13-time best low-cost carrier? Let’s take a look at AirAsia’s history.
Humble beginnings in 1993.
AirAsia is a Malaysian low-cost airline that was started in 1993. The airline was founded as a government-owned enterprise, but it was eventually privatized and relaunched as AirAsia.
Tony Fernandes, a businessman and former Warner Music executive, and his partners bought the faltering airline for one ringgit (approximately $0.26) in 2001 with the purpose of converting it into a low-cost carrier.
In November 2001, the airline inaugurated its first route, from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu. AirAsia started swiftly expanding, adding new destinations and routes to its network. The airline’s first international service, from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok, was opened in 2002.
The Malaysian government granted AirAsia its Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) in 2003, allowing it to operate as a fully regulated airline. The following year, AirAsia announced ambitions to increase its fleet and network in order to become the region’s dominant low-cost airline.
In the years that followed, AirAsia continued to develop and expand, adding more destinations and routes to its network and establishing new subsidiaries in other countries in the area. Thai AirAsia, a new subsidiary of AirAsia, commenced operations in Thailand in 2005.
In 2007, AirAsia said it wanted to start AirAsia X, a new low-cost long-haul subsidiary that would fly to places in Europe, Australia, and Asia. The inaugural AirAsia X flight went from Kuala Lumpur to Gold Coast, Australia, in 2007.
AirAsia has grown to become one of the most successful low-cost airlines in the world. It is now operating in Indonesia, the Philippines, India, and Japan, among other countries in the region. Since its founding, the airline has flown over 500 million passengers and was listed on the stock market in 2004.
Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, AirAsia paused its operations in March 2020. It later restarted domestic operations in April 2020, followed shortly after by its affiliates. After the Malaysian government relaxed travel restrictions in October 2021, AirAsia resumed foreign flights.
AirAsia proposed changing its corporate name to Capital A on January 3, 2022, subject to shareholder approval. The proposed name has been authorized by the Malaysian Companies Commission (SSM) and will be reserved by the firm on December 28, 2021. The firm changed its name from AirAsia Group Bhd to Capital A Bhd on January 28, 2022, to reflect the development of its business portfolio beyond the core cheap airline. However, its airline division continued to operate under the AirAsia name.
AirAsia fleet history
AirAsia has a diversified fleet history. After Tony Fernandes and his partners purchased the government-owned airline in 2001, they started flying with Boeing 737-300 planes.
AirAsia started expanding its fleet in 2001, adding more Boeing 737-300 aircraft to its fleet. This enabled the airline to lower its operational expenses even more while increasing capacity on its routes.
AirAsia started receiving Airbus A320 aircraft in 2005, eventually retiring all their Boeing 737s in 2009.
At the Paris Air Show in June 2011, AirAsia bought 200 Airbus A320neos. The jets were supposed to be ready in 2015, and the agreement was one of the biggest single orders for commercial aircraft ever. The transaction was valued US$18 billion at list prices, but AirAsia received a significant reduction from those prices.
The agreement makes AirAsia Airbus’s only client. On December 13, 2012, AirAsia made an order for 100 more Airbus A320 planes, 64 A320neo and 36 A320ceo.
Air Asia bought 100 A321neos at the Farnborough International Air Show in 2016, at an estimated cost of US$12.6 billion at list prices. Air Asia intends to fly this bigger aircraft to airports with little infrastructure. In September 2016, AirAsia got its first A320neo. AirAsia raised its orders for A320 aircraft at the 2019 Farnborough Air Show, becoming Airbus’ top client for the A321neo type.
With this deal, AirAsia’s overall number of orders for the Airbus A320 family increased to 592, reinforcing the carrier’s position as the top airline client for the Airbus single aisle product line.
AirAsia’s fleet now consists of a mix of Airbus A320 family and A321neo aircraft. AirAsia X is a branch of the airline that flies long-distance routes with a fleet of Airbus A330 planes. These include 70 A320-200, 29 A320neo, and 2 A321neo.
AirAsia Philippines
AirAsia Berhad announced intentions to create a new subsidiary airline in the Philippines in 2010, with the purpose of extending its network and capitalizing on the country’s rising demand for air travel.
AirAsia’s proposal to create a new airline in the Philippines was accepted by the Philippine government in 2011, and AirAsia Philippines was formally inaugurated in March 2012. The airline’s first flights were between Manila and Kalibo.
In the months after that, AirAsia Philippines worked hard to grow its fleet and network, adding more destinations and routes. The airline has announced plans to build a new hub in Cebu to act as a hub for flights to other cities in the Philippines and around the region. The airline got a large investment from Filipino investors in 2013, which benefited the airline’s financial status and expansion.
AirAsia Philippines has had to deal with a lot of problems over the years, such as those caused by the COVID-19 epidemic in 2020. Even with all of these problems, the airline has kept flying to many places in the Philippines and Southeast Asia.
AirAsia Philippines, being the strong airline that it is, keeps adding more planes and routes, both domestic and international, to its network. Because of the airline’s growth, they continue to employ additional flight crew and personnel. But I’m more enthused about their new aircraft, especially the A321neo. While no date has been set for AirAsia Philippines to get this aircraft, it is assured that they will.
First love never dies. I fell in love with airplanes and aviation when I was a kid. My dream was to become a pilot, but destiny led me to another path: to be an aviation digital media content creator and a small business owner. My passion for aviation inspires me to bring you quality content through my website and social accounts. Aviation is indeed in my blood and blog!
