The deal, valued at over $12.2 billion at list prices, was announced in Paris on the sidelines of Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s state visit to France. It marks the airline group’s first aircraft order since the Covid-19 pandemic upended the global travel industry.
Expanding an Already Large Narrowbody Commitment
This fresh commitment adds to AirAsia’s existing order for 20 A321XLRs and comes with options to convert up to 20 of its current A321neo orders to the longer-range variant. Altogether, the low-cost airline group now has over 300 A321neos on its books—part of its plan to build one of the world’s largest narrowbody fleets.
AirAsia Group’s units span Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Cambodia, making it one of Asia’s most geographically diversified low-cost brands. In February 2024, the group converted 62 A321neo orders on a one-for-one basis to the A321LR, underscoring its commitment to the longer-range segment of the single-aisle market.
Deliveries Planned for 2026 and Beyond
Tony Fernandes, CEO of AirAsia’s parent company Capital A, said the first A321XLR is due for delivery in 2028, although the airline is in talks with Airbus to potentially accelerate that timeline. Meanwhile, the A321LR deliveries are set to begin in 2026, with four aircraft expected that year.
Fernandes described the XLR as transformative for AirAsia’s network plans:
“A narrowbody obviously gives us a lot less risk in terms of studying new routes, and gives us the opportunity to go to many more destinations that we couldn’t have gone to before with a widebody aircraft.”
Targeting New Markets with Long-Range Single-Aisles
The new long-range narrowbodies are key to AirAsia’s goal of becoming a “low-cost network carrier” capable of connecting Asia to Europe and North America. Fernandes has previously highlighted plans to expand beyond the airline’s traditional Asia-Pacific focus.
By leveraging the A321XLR’s extended range, AirAsia aims to launch direct flights to secondary cities that were previously out of reach due to the economics of operating larger widebody aircraft.
“Many routes in Asia we couldn’t do because the A330 was too large: if you look at Busan or secondary cities in Japan, like Hiroshima or Nagoya,” Fernandes said. “We can also operate direct point-to-point routes on top of our connecting network—from Bali and Penang, we can fly to lots of destinations in China and India as well. So this really opens our market.”
Reassessing Widebody Strategy
While AirAsia X—the group’s medium- and long-haul sister carrier—currently operates A330-300s and has A330neos on order, the long-term role of widebodies in the fleet is increasingly in question.
Fernandes suggested AirAsia could eventually shift to an all-narrowbody operation over the next decade, targeting a fleet of more than 500 Airbus single-aisle jets.
“My personal preference would be to exit the widebody operations as part of our whole restructuring,” he said, noting that discussions with Airbus over the future of the A330neo orders are ongoing.
He argued that the large A330 cabins—configured for nearly 380 seats—limit flexibility for launching routes to smaller markets, where demand is strong but doesn’t justify a widebody’s scale.
Low-Cost Carrier Evolution
The latest order underlines AirAsia’s ambition to reshape what long-haul low-cost travel looks like in Asia. By deploying long-range narrowbodies, the airline hopes to unlock new city pairs with lower risk, improved profitability, and greater frequency, while maintaining its trademark low-cost model.
As Fernandes put it, these aircraft give AirAsia the ability to “fly all over the world on a narrowbody”—a strategy that, if successful, could set a new template for low-cost international expansion in the post-pandemic era.