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flee

AirAsia Purchased 100 Airbus A321neo at Farnborough Airshow 2016

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With Airasia group load factors now hitting 80% regularly, do you think that they will continue with the policy of adding more frequencies or operating larger aircraft with a premium product?

 

If they had some A321s, they could perhaps install 2-2 premium economy seats with 32" seat pitch and create a "business class" product. We do know that many people now use Airasia for their business trips due to the many frequencies, making it very convenient. Having a higher yield product may help to arrest the declining yields.

 

Alternatively, Airasia Group can replace some rows in the current A320s with premium seats so that the load factor can increase further while improving yields at the same time.

 

What is your opinion on how Airasia can improve yields? Bigger aircraft or reconfigure current ones to include a premium product?

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In a way, yes - low cost full service carrier but got to pay for every damn service! ;)

 

But my line of thinking was this - the products of Airasia X and Airasia will be closer together. So when someone books a Fly Through ticket, they can have a premium seat all the way, even when connecting from Airasia X to Airasia.

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I know air new zealand and brussel air...you can buy 3 types of tickets all on the same flight...they separate by the seats row and different service level...as it is...airasia has 2/3 types of fare...promo/normal and highflyer...although you get hotseats...it's usually not wider just more legroom at emex row and bulkhead...

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TF said earlier last month that the move to klia2 will open up a new market for AK - the business travellers. I doubt he is looking into offering premium seats and stuffs as of yet until they can study the effectiveness of getting the business travellers to use AK now onwards. The KUL-SIN-KUL market is already filled with some amount of business travellers, but trying to tap the market for the other sectors will be very challenging. For now he will only be concentrating on ancillary income (min RM50 per pax) to offset the losses in the other areas.

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Interesting article:

 

At American Airlines, Airbus A321 Is Forcing Out the A320
“At American and US Airways, when we’ve had decisions in front of us, we’ve taken all A321s,” American President Scott Kirby said last week at the Wolfe Research airline investor conference. “We’re migrating to the largest in class for all aircraft.
“You can put an extra 60 seats on that airplane and the cost goes up 10% to 15%,” Kirby said.
“It’s due to high load factors,” he added. “We’re going to be continuing to migrate up to bigger and bigger aircraft.”

 

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The A321neo might work for MH too. VN seems to be using it as the backbone of their narrow body fleet.

 

The A321neo will enable MH to put more business class seats to help increase its yields, since yields have taken such a tumble on MH.

 

What do you think?

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The could also use 737-900 series?

Of course they could use the B737-9Max.

 

However, it is widely acknowledged in the industry that Boeing has the edge in the B737-800 vs A320-200 contest while Airbus wins the B737-900 vs A321 comparison.

 

Also the A321neo will be available earlier than the B737-9Max.

 

The main reason why I am discussing the neo now is because it does not make too much sense to order ceo versions of Airbus now, unless it is a very urgent order. The A320neo will enter service next year and the A321neo should follow about a year after that.

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So, within the space of a week, we hear that both Airasia and MAB are looking seriously into the A321neo for their operations.

 

No surprises, really - the airlines in this region (e.g. Vietnam, HK, Taiwan and Philippines) are finding good reasons to use the A321 - its lower CASKs and higher flexibility will be very useful to any airline.

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A321neo is idea for d7.

Nothing concrete yet - it may be for Airasia or Airasia X or both. They are still studying.

 

For Airasia, it may be a way to provide premium economy seats because current hot seats are not selling that well. For Airasia X, they can still put in lie flat seats on A321s and use them on thin routes or routes where higher frequency would be advantageous.

 

For MAB, their reasons would be similar to Airasia X's.

 

Airlines like EVA Air and Vietnam Airlines seem to be finding the A321 very flexible and cost effective. Startup LCC VietJet is now converting many of their A320 orders into A321s. Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific are also increasing their A321 fleets. Airlines in the US are also using more A321s as they retire older B757s.

 

So it looks like the A321 is a fine performing aircraft for a variety of airlines. I am sure that MAB and AirAsia Group will find them useful.

Edited by flee

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Nothing concrete yet - it may be for Airasia or Airasia X or both. They are still studying.

 

For Airasia, it may be a way to provide premium economy seats because current hot seats are not selling that well. For Airasia X, they can still put in lie flat seats on A321s and use them on thin routes or routes where higher frequency would be advantageous.

 

For MAB, their reasons would be similar to Airasia X's.

 

Airlines like EVA Air and Vietnam Airlines seem to be finding the A321 very flexible and cost effective. Startup LCC VietJet is now converting many of their A320 orders into A321s. Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific are also increasing their A321 fleets. Airlines in the US are also using more A321s as they retire older B757s.

 

So it looks like the A321 is a fine performing aircraft for a variety of airlines. I am sure that MAB and AirAsia Group will find them useful.

 

 

A large proportion of D7 load is seasonal, A333 is too big for off peak on many routes and losing money. With A321, D7 could be profitable during off peak period.

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A321NEO will be ideal for secondary cities in China as well as Korea, Japan, India, Sri Lanka. Also Ideal for Indonesia - Australia East cost ops.

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Wah piang...100 A321s, AirAsia group is beating every other existing order. Currently on order 304 single-aisle aircraft and 76 twin-aisle jets on order...

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Interesting to see how ak business will evolve.

 

Ak flight could be booked months ahead; if assigned a321 is downgraded to a320 at the last moment, not sure how ak is going to handle those been denied boarding pax.

 

A321 would be idea aircraft for d7.

Edited by KK Lee

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..... if assigned a321 is downgraded to a320 at the last moment, not sure how ak is going to handle those been denied boarding pax.

54!+ happens, deal with it :D

(but AK group being what they are, will probably turn that to positive PR at first whiff of things going sour publicly)

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Ak flight could be booked months ahead; if assigned a321 is downgraded to a320 at the last moment, not sure how ak is going to handle those been denied boarding pax.

I don't think this will ever become an issue. The A321 will still have that tight 29" seat pitch 6 abreast seating - similar to the A320. So swapping from one aircraft to another will not be an issue. I would imagine swapping aircraft would only be done if the load factor does not justify using the A321. However, as the aircraft will fly several sectors a day, it will probably be a rare occurrence as other sectors will also be affected.

 

Full service carriers switch equipment all the time. So it is a perfectly normal airline practice.

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I would imagine swapping aircraft would only be done if the load factor does not justify using the A321.

 

Swapping an aircraft is also very possible when the A321 go tech and the only spare aircraft available is an A320. Seen too many of such cases in SQ.

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Swapping an aircraft is also very possible when the A321 go tech and the only spare aircraft available is an A320. Seen too many of such cases in SQ.

SQ has A320s?

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SQ has A320s?

I think Albert is referring to SQ swapping flight equipment using MI's A320.

 

 

Last month TF was hinting AirAsia is looking at A321 although no commitment yet, http://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/06/153136/airasia-eyes-airbus-a321

 

Perhaps JL can drop his pants once again to get TF team to sign the dotted lines......

Edited by JuliusWong

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Perhaps JL can drop his pants once again to get TF team to sign the dotted lines......

I think they will only sign if Airbus gives them a good deal. So if the orders don't come in from the others as expected, Airbus might give them a good deal.

 

I think an announcement later in the week is more likely, if they do strike a deal.

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