Airbus eyeing low cost carriers in Asia

February 9, 2006 by SwizStick  
Filed under 3PL, Airlines, Integrators

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Airbus sees Asia’s growing low cost carriers as a potential growth market for their company, according to this article from TheEdgeDaily:

Airbus SAS is eyeing the growth potential of the low cost carrier (LCC) and air freight sectors in Asia Pacific as possible markets for expansion, its regional communications representative Anthony Phillips said.

He said: “Out of the 1,111 aircraft we sold last year, 511 aircraft were for the Asia Pacific market. Out of that, about 460 were A320s of which 270 were for low cost airlines.

“This means that more than 45% of our orders came from Asia Pacific of which 25% of the A320 were from the low cost airlines alone.”
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Phillips said that they sold 270 A320 aircraft (last year) to low cost airlines, which is about 25% of global sales. As LCCs account for only 6% of the local air traffic in Asia Pacific, Airbus see this as a continuing growth area.

“By contrast, only a few years ago, nobody could forecast the number of new airlines. AirAsia Bhd is a good example by ordering 60 aircraft last year with an option for 40 more. You can imagine the energy in that sector that is by far the fastest growing segment,” he added.

The Airbus A320 is a great aircraft, it has been gaining ground in the US market as well with airlines such as JetBlue. They also carry a surprisingly large amount of narrow body cargo. It will be interesting to see how the intra-Asia carriers utilize cargo space on such aircraft.

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