ETW Staff – Mumbai
India’s newest airline, AirAsia India, has taken delivery of its first aircraft, an Airbus A320 equipped with Sharklets. Chennai-based AirAsia India will take delivery of an additional nine aircraft for its initial fleet of 10 A320s, to serve India’s rapidly growing domestic air traffic. Powered by CFM engines, the aircraft is configured in an all economy layout with 180 seats.
Mittu Chandilya, CEO, AirAsia India, said, “Indian domestic traffic is growing at an impressive rate and our well established and successful business model suits the market. AirAsia and Airbus have a long-standing, special relationship. We are fully confident that with our new A320 fleet we will provide the Indian passenger the service and convenient travel options already offered by the AirAsia Group elsewhere in the region.”
The new airline is a joint venture between AirAsia Group, Tata Sons and Telstra Tradeplace. AirAsia India’s fleet will be drawn from the 475 A320 family aircraft ordered by the AirAsia Group. To date, almost a third of the aircraft on order have already been delivered and are flying on AirAsia Group’s operations out of Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila and now Chennai. The AirAsia Group has also ordered 51 A330s and 10 A350 XWBs for its long haul affiliate AirAsia X.
