Fly Asian places 15-plane Airbus order

1 May, 2007: Fly Asian Xpress, the Malaysian long-haul budget carrier, has reportedly placed a 15-plane order with Airbus. The buy would run a cost of up to $2.63 billion, it is learnt.

According to a report quoting Fly Asian Xpress top brass, the rural Malaysian carrier will need at least 25 planes within five years. The airline is said to have ordered as many as ten A330-300s, while taking options for another five, the report added.

At a time when Airbus and Boeing are competing with each other to supply low-cost carriers with aircraft considering the fact that no-frills travel usually goes long distance, the latest from Fly Asian would come as good news for Airbus. The airline, which analysts said would carry around 10 million passengers a year by 2012, plans to fly long-haul under the AirAsia brand from September, selling tickets for as little as $2.92, the report added.

Fly Asian is expected to lease around three A330s for its initial flights until the first purchased plane is delivered in September 2008. The A330 commands a price of $175 million. The airline would bank on bank loans to pay for the planes, the report added.

Analysts believe that the Asia-Pacific passenger traffic is likely to grow at a 5.7 percent annual rate between 2006 and 2010.

Fly Asian isn’t the only no frills carrier that has made it big in the Asia-Pacific region. Tiger Airways, a discount carrier partly owned by Singapore Airlines has ordered eight Airbus A320s, India’s own Air Deccan are two of the other majors . Fly Asian had won Malaysian government approval in January to begin international services and flights were initially scheduled to start in July.

It would have as its destinations China, India, Australia, the Middle East, Europe and Japan, the report said.