The Rise of AirAsia’s 100th Dragon

The Rise of AirAsia’s 100th Dragon
AirAsia’s 100th Airbus A320 arrives at LCC Terminal

AirAsia, World’s Best Low Cost Airline by Skytrax for three consecutive years (2009, 2010, 2011) welcomed the arrival of its 100th Airbus A320 today. To commemorate this special event, the aircraft featured a special dragon livery which is the zodiac of this Chinese New Year as well as the zodiac of Tan Sri Tony Fernandes.

Together with its affiliates in Indonesia and Thailand, AirAsia operates the Airbus A320 aircraft for its entire route network throughout the region. Currently, both the Malaysia and Thailand operations are fully Airbus, while the Indonesia operations will be 100% Airbus by end of 1Q 2012.

VIDEO The Making Of AirAsia’s 100th Dragon!

AirAsia’s 100th ‘dragon’ in the sky was brought to life by AirAsia’s Group CEO, Tan Sri Tony Fernandes with an eye-dotting ceremony to complete the dragon, in accordance to ancient myth. The celebration was also attended by AirAsia Berhad’s Chairman, Dato’ Aziz Bakar; Deputy Group CEO, Dato’ Kamarudin Meranun; member of board of directors; Dato’ Fam Lee Ee; CEO of AirAsia X, Mr Azran Osman-Rani, and Regional Commercial Head, Kathleen Tan.

AirAsia Group Chief Executive Officer, Tan Sri Tony Fernandes says, “We started with only two aircraft ten years ago, and here we stand today with our 100th Airbus A320, making us the largest Airbus A320 aircraft operator in Southeast Asia. We have weathered many challenges, persevering in the most difficult of situations. This milestone underlines AirAsia’s commitment to continue to invest in new aircraft for the benefit of our customers”.

“AirAsia is proud and excited to receive our 100th Airbus A320. The delivery comes timely as we usher the year of dragon, and what better way to celebrate this momentous arrival than having a bold dragon livery that depicts strength and good fortune, which is also our Group CEO, Tan Sri Tony Fernandes’ chinese zodiac. The use of this Chinese mythical dragon also reiterates the potential of the Chinese market for AirAsia, with Chinese travelers being the second highest nationality after Malaysians to travel on our route network,” says Kathleen Tan, Regional Commercial Head, AirAsia.

As part of the celebration, AirAsia is running a ‘Celebrate Our 100th Airbus’ promotion, with all-in-fares to selected destinations from as low as RM30 one way. Guests are able to travel to domestic and international cities such as Guilin, Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Penang, Langkawi, Johor Bahru, Sandakan, Bali, Phuket, Hatyai, Hanoi, Clark and many others with this promotion.

The long-haul low fare affiliate of AirAsia, AirAsia X will also run a parallel promotional offer to commemorate the 100th Airbus with all-in fares from as low as RM250 to Australia (Melbourne, Perth, Gold Coast, Sydney), from RM200 to China (Chengdu, Hangzhou, Tianjin), from RM250 to Japan (Tokyo, Osaka), from RM280 to Korea (Seoul) and Taiwan (Taipei) and from as low as RM550 to New Zealand (Christchurch). The promotion period is available for booking from 2 – 14 February 2012, for the travel period of 1 May – 30 June 2012 via www.airasia.com.

Guests who book with AirAsia’s global loyalty card, BIG, will be rewarded with 2,888 BIGGIES (loyalty points) for China destinations, and 888 BIGGIES for the other destinations that are featured in this promotion. There will also no longer be processing fees from 2 February 2012 onwards for guests who make payment with the BIG prepaid Visa card, which is only available to Malaysians for now. Guests can sign up for the BIG card at www.tune2big.com.

A team of 20 painters worked around the clock for 12 days to paint the Airbus A320 in the colours of the dragon. Approximately 600 litres of paint were required to complete the job.

The aircraft, which will operate on the Kuala Lumpur-Macau route right after it is launched, will also serve Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Singapore, Hong Kong, cities in Indonesia, and destinations throughout China on its aircraft rotation.

The dragon livery is the most recent addition to AirAsia’s numerous aircraft with special liveries such as the Bo Rocks and Dato’ Pahamin liveries, as tribute to the Chief Operating Officer (Bo Lingam) and ex-chairman’s (Dato’ Pahamin) contributions to AirAsia; Amazing AirAsia livery; Truly Asean livery to celebrate 2009’s ASEAN Day; Zoom Malaysia livery in support of Tourism Malaysia’s initiatives to promote the country; Dato’ Lat’s livery, to recognize the Malaysian talent; Asean Basketball League livery; Tun Mahathir livery to thank the visionary leader for his contribution to our nation; and the Oakland Raiders livery, amongst many others.

AirAsia currently has 58 Airbus A320 based in four hubs in Malaysia, 22 aircraft based in three hubs in Thailand, 18 aircraft based in five hubs throughout Indonesia and two more aircraft in Clark, Philippines.