Tourism Indochina: Southeast Asia’s Largest Budget Airline

Introduction to Air Asia

Wikipedia: AirAsia Berhad (MYX: 5099) is a Malaysian-based low-cost airline. AirAsia is Asia's largest low-fare, no-frills airline and a pioneer of low-cost travel in Asia. AirAsia group operates scheduled domestic and international flights to over 400 destinations spanning 25 countries. Its main hub is the Low-Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). Its affiliate airlines Thai AirAsia and Indonesia AirAsia have hubs in Suvarnabhumi Airport and Soekarno-Hatta International Airport respectively. AirAsia's registered office is in Petaling Jaya, Selangor while its head office is located in Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Air Asia plans to open ASEAN regional headquarters in Jakarta by August or September 2011. The airline itself will maintain its headquarters in Kuala Lumpur for the time being.
AirAsia won the Skytrax World's best low-cost airline award in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011.[8] It has the world's lowest operating costs at $0.035/seat-kilometre in 2010. It is also the first airline in the region to implement fully ticketless air travel system.

AirAsia was established in 1993 and commenced operations on 18 November 1996. It was originally founded by a government-owned conglomerate DRB-Hicom. On 2 December 2001, the heavily-indebted airline was purchased by former Time Warner executive Tony Fernandes's company Tune Air Sdn Bhd for the token sum of one ringgit (about $USD0.26 at the time) with USD$11 million (RM40 million) worth of debts. Fernandes proceeded to engineer a remarkable turnaround, turning a profit in 2002 and launching new routes from its hub in Kuala Lumpur International Airport at breakneck speed, undercutting former monopoly operator Malaysia Airlines with promotional fares as low as RM1 (US$0.27).

AirAsia operates with the world’s lowest unit cost of US$0.023/ASK and a passenger break-even load factor of 52%. It has hedged 100% of its fuel requirements for the next three years, achieves an aircraft turnaround time of 25 minutes, has a crew productivity level that is triple that of Malaysia Airlines and achieves an average aircraft utilisation rate of 13 hours a day.

All scheduled AirAsia departures out of Kuala Lumpur International Airport are operated via the Low Cost Carrier Terminal. AirAsia had abolished its fuel surcharges on November 2008,but due to the rising oil price, the fuel-surcharge has been re-introduced in May 2011.

Air Asia ready to spread its wings

(Tourism Indochina:Date : 2008-03-25):

Southeast Asia’s largest budget airline is continuing to spread its expansion with the purchase of 175 fuel-efficient A320 Airbuses at a cost about 10.5 billion. Air Asia has already acquired 50 planes from Air bus. Tony Fernandes, the Malaysia Company’s chief executive, said buying more aircraft was essential for the airline if it was going to meet the growing number of air routes and the increased liberalization of air links through out the region.


Air Asia recently gained permission of fly the lucrative Kuala Lumpur- Singapore route. Fernandes believes the A320’s vaunted fuel efficiency will help the company cope with the current high fuel prices. The air line reported a year-on- year profit increase of 15% in the third quarter of 2007, well before the traditional holiday period.

Cambodia tours=>
href="http://www.tourismindochina.com/cambodia/tours/">http://www.tourismindochina.com/cambodia/tours/
Vietnam tours=>
href="http://www.tourismindochina.com/vietnam/tours/">http://www.tourismindochina.com/vietnam/tours/
Laos tours=> http://www.tourismindochina.com/laos/tours/
More about Cambodia Rice Exporter, please visit:
href="http://www.cambodiaorganic.com/">http://www.cambodiaorganic.com/