AirAsia and Virgin Atlantic sign for Airbus A330neo.
Airbus A330neo is almost reaching 250 sales with the last firm orders of Virgin Atlantic and AirAsia. In fact, while the Asia-Pacific company is unveiling its first A330neo airplane — which will be joined by an additional 66 already ordered — the European company has signed a contract for 8 of those with unspecified options and leased an additional 6 from Air Lease Corporation.
Airbus A330neo comes with Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engines. The new AirAsia’s aircraft will be based in Bangkok-Don Mueang and operate for AirAsia X Thailand with destinations in Australia, Japan and South Korea. The Thai AirAsia X’s aircraft has a Two-class configuration with 377 seats, 365 of which seats in Economy and 12 in Business class.
With its latest acquisition, Virgin Atlantic Airways becomes A330neo’s second European client, behind TAP Portugal. Moreover, the airline company is already an Airbus A350-1000’s client, with a 12 aircraft firm order. The delivery of the first aircraft should happen in a few days or weeks.
For its part, AirAsia is currently using a fleet of 36 Airbus A330-300. Besides, so far Asia-Pacific represents 33% of Airbus A330neos’ sales thanks to the last 66 aircraft ordered.