AirAsia airline: Introduction

AirAsia (or airasia) is the largest ultra low-cost airline (ULCC) in Asia and operates from several countries in Southeast Asia. It often has great prices to get you around once you get there (or even to get to your destination in Asia) and is one of the highest-rated ULCCs in the world!

The current AirAsia sale with free flights pushes me to at least post this introduction quickly; we’re going to be doing ultimate guides for the major airlines so obviously we’ll have more details (and guides for Canadian airlines first of course).

But here is an introduction to AirAsia, including a preview of my experiences with their flights.

Overview of AirAsia

Here are the basics of AirAsia:

• Type of airline
  • ULCC (ultra low-cost)
• Head office
  • Sepang, Malaysia
• Subsidiaries
  • Thai AirAsia
  • Indonesia AirAsia
  • Philippines AirAsia
  • AirAsia Cambodia
  • AirAsia X
  • Thai AirAsiaX
• Airline code
  • AK, FD, QZ, Z2, D7, XJ
• Official website
  • airasia.com

Here are the basics of AirAsia‘s route network:

• Domestic flights
  • In 4 countries (soon 5)
    • Malaysia
    • Thailand
    • Indonesia
    • Philippines
    • Cambodia (2024)
• International flights
  • Between these 4 countries and 19 other countries
• Major hubs
  • Kuala Lumpur (KUL)
  • Bangkok (BKK)
  • Jakarta (CGK)
  • Manila (MNL)
• Cities served in North America
  • None (unless you count Hawaii)

Here is the travel rewards angle for AirAsia:

• Rewards program
  • AirAsia BIG Loyalty
• Best card for free flights
  • TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card
• Airline Alliance
  • None

Here are some facts to give you an idea of the size of AirAsia:

• Passengers carried
  • 83 million (2019)
• Destinations served
  • 165 (in 23 countries)
• Aircraft fleet
  • 255 (average age of 8.5 years)
    • 232 narrow-body aircraft
    • 23 wide-body aircraft

Basics of AirAsia and the AirAsia network

AirAsia is a major pan-Asian ultra low-cost carrier. It has been the top rated low-cost airline for over 10 years in a row.

As for all your flights, you should book directly on their official website airasia.com, if the price is the same as on independent booking sites. 

AirAsia was founded in Malaysia, but has operation bases in 4 different countries. This means that in addition to offering domestic flights in these 4 countries, AirAsia offers flights between 19 countries and these 4 countries. That covers almost all of Southeast Asia.

Most are short-distance or medium-distance flights on narrow-body aircraft (1-aisle aircraft), but some are long-distance flights on wide-body aircraft (2-aisle aircraft). The complete list of routes is below.

Unfortunately, they do not offer any to North America (except Hawaii). Still, AirAsia can sometimes be very convenient to get from Canada to Asia for less, thanks to the self-transfer tip.

AirAsia has a particularity: the airline is officially structured in several separate entities, hence the multiple airline codes.

Here are the names of the subsidiaries (with their codes) and their countries:

• AirAsia (AK): Malaysia
• Thai AirAsia (FD): Thailand
• Indonesia AirAsia (QZ): Indonesia
• Philippines AirAsia (Z2): Philippines
• AirAsia Cambodia: Cambodia (launching in 2024)

But that’s not all! The wide-body aircraft for their longest flights belong to 2 other separate entities (with 1 hub each):

• AirAsia X (D7): Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (KUL)
• Thai AirAsia X (XJ): Bangkok, Thailand (BKK)

Basically, the AirAsia name can refer to the entire group of 6 different airlines (soon to be 7) or to just the largest, the original in Malaysia.

Note that AirAsia has just sold its stake in the AirAsia India airline to the owners of Air India, who have renamed it AIX Connect. AirAsia Japan also disappeared in 2020, a victim of the pandemic of the government’s response to the pandemic.

Travel rewards with AirAsia

As is often the case with ultra low-cost carriers, AirAsia‘s rewards program is not great.

First, the points have a fixed value, so there’s no option to get outsized value. Airline points are usually very lucrative and the most valuable in fact, like Air Canada’s Aeroplan points.

Most importantly, the AirAsia BIG Loyalty program is not very useful for Canadians: no Canadian bank program currency is transferable to ultra low-cost carrier points and no card earns ULCC points directly either.

Like all ultra low-cost carriers, AirAsia is not part of any airline alliance either.

So if you want to get reward flights on AirAsia, you’re going to have to use simple bank points that can be applied to any travel expense.

The best offer right now — and in fact one of the best offers ever in Canada for simple points — is the TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card, which gives you $925 ($825 in simple points and a $100 travel credit). To get $825 in value, the points need to be applied to any flight or hotel through their Expedia platform for TD. If not, they’re still worth $660 if you book with the airline directly.

Flytrippers opinion: One of the highest-ever offers for simple points that can be applied to almost any travel expense.
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Card eligibility min. income: $60k OR $100k (household) Welcome bonus eligibility must not have activated/closed this specific card in the past 12 months	TD Rewards Points (more simple) + $100 credit (2x) Bonus: 135k pts Earn on min. spend: 30k pts (total: 165k pts) • $825 for any travel booked with Expedia for TD • $660 for any travel booked anywhere	How to unlock bonus spend $5,000 in 6 months Interest rates: Purchases: 21.99% Cash advances: 22.99% Cash advances (QC): 21.99%
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More info to come on the travel rewards aspect; sign up for our special separate free newsletter just on travel rewards.

AirAsia aircraft fleet

Like most ULCCs, AirAsia‘s short-distance divisions operate just one family of aircraft, the Airbus A320 family.

AirAsia has 232 narrow-body aircraft, including these variants (with many more on order):

• Airbus A320-200
• Airbus A320neo
• Airbus A321neo

But what is a little more unusual for a ULCC is having long-distance subsidiaries. Not many ULCCs are able to make flights on wide-body aircraft work, but AirAsia has had them for several years now.

They have 15 Airbus A330s, so their approach and growth is quite careful and methodical on that side, one that is less proven for the ULCC business model.

AirAsia baggage policy and other info

Many more sections to come; in the meantime, you can read on their site for baggage.

AirAsia route network map

There are 2 tools that we use to see an airline’s route network:

• The list in text version
  • Wikipedia page for the airline
  • Wikipedia page for each individual airport
• The network in visual version
  • FlightConnections website (AirAsia)
  • FlightConnections site (AirAsia X)
  • FlightConnections site (Thai AirAsia)
  • FlightConnections site (Thai AirAsia X)
  • FlightConnections (Indonesia AirAsia)
  • FlightConnections website (Philippines AirAsia)

I’ve included the route network maps here if you want it to be easier.

AirAsia (Malaysia)

Here is the route network for AirAsia (Malaysia).

Here is the AirAsia (Malaysia) domestic route network for a better view.

AirAsia X

This is the route network for AirAsia X.

Thai AirAsia

Here is the route network for Thai AirAsia.

Here is Thai AirAsia‘s domestic route network for a better view.

Thai AirAsia X

Here is the route network for Thai AirAsia X.

Indonesia AirAsia

Here is the route network for Indonesia AirAsia.

Here is Indonesia AirAsia‘s domestic route network for a better view.

Philippines AirAsia

Here is the route network for Philippines AirAsia.

Here is Philippines AirAsia‘s domestic route network for a better view.

My experiences on AirAsia

Like just about any traveler who has traveled in Southeast Asia, I have obviously flown AirAsia a few times. The experience was very good; it’s the best in the world according to the rankings after all.

While waiting for a more detailed review to come, here are some pictures I took on my AirAsia flights departing from Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore (all on A320s).

First, if you haven’t traveled much, welcome to boarding without jetbridges. It gives a great view of the planes, at least.

The interiors were clean and well-maintained.

The seats were more comfortable than on many ultra low-cost carriers.

In short, these are jets from the popular Airbus A320 family — as I’m sure you’ve flown before — with a pretty dense configuration that is 100% economy, as are just about all ULCCs.

The legroom was also very typical of ULCCs (I’m 6 feet tall for context). I usually never fly in shorts, but it gets pretty hot in Southeast Asia.

And finally, a classic view from the wingtip: that’s always beautiful no matter what airline, but AirAsia does fly to many cities that offer a great vista (in this case, it’s the awesome city-nation of Singapore).

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Featured image: AirAsia Airbus A320neo (photo credit: AirAsia)

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