AirAsia announced an Airbus order for 100 A321neo aircraft last week. The order is the first placed by AirAsia for the largest member of the A320 family. The A321neo offers a single-class layout with 240 seats, and enables airlines to increase capacity while lowering operating costs. “The A321neo will be operated on our most popular routes and especially at airports with infrastructure constraints. It will allow us to bring higher passenger volumes with the same slots, therefore providing immediate benefits to the airports. These include, among others, more efficient operations, higher revenues from passenger service charges and more airport retail purchases. We will also continue to maintain our 24-minute turnaround with two- or three-step boarding where permitted to ensure on-time performance,” said Tony Fernandes, CEO, AirAsia Group. Including the order, AirAsia retains 575 A320 aircraft, making it the largest Airbus single-aisle production line customer. Currently 170 various A320 aircraft fly AirAsia routes in Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines. “AirAsia Group currently operates close to 1,000 flights per day to more than 120 destinations in 24 countries. We recorded a robust load factor of 85 per cent in the first quarters of 2016, up 8 percentage points from the same period last year, and we are confident of maintaining this momentum going forward,” added Fernandes. “The A321neo will help us to meet ongoing strong demand as well as further reduce our cost per available seat kilometer across the group, which will translate to lower air fares for our guests.”