An overview on Air Asia: a low cost airline based in Kuala Lumpur Essay

Air Asia is a low cost airline based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It operates scheduled domestic and international flights and is Asia's largest low fare, no frills airlines. Air Asia pioneered low cost travelling in Asia. It is also the first airline in the region to implement fully ticketless travel and unassigned seats. Its main base is the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). Its affiliate airlines Thai Air Asia and Indonesia Air Asia fly from Suvarnabhumi Airport, Thailand and Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Indonesia, respectively.
The airlines established in 1993 and started operations on 18 November 1996. It was originally founded by a government-owned conglomerate DRB Hicom. On December 2, 2001 the heavily indebted airlines was purchased by the former Time Warner executive Tony Fernandes's company Tune Air Sdn Bhd for the token sum of one ringgit. Fernandes proceeded to engineer a remarkable turnaround, turning a profit in 2002 and launching new routes from its hub in Kuala Lumpur International Airport at breakneck speed, undercutting former monopoly operator Malaysia Airlines with promotional fares as low as RM1 (US $ 0.29).
Air Asia operates with the world's lowest unit cost of US$0.023/ASK and a passenger breakeven load factor of 52%. It has hedged 100% of its fuel requirements for the next three years, achieves an aircraft turnaround time of 25 minutes, has a crew productivity level that is triple that of Malaysia Airlines and achieves an average aircraft utilization rate of 13 hours a day.
Air Asia currently is the main customer of the Airbus A 320. The company has placed an order of 175 units of the same plane to service its routes and at least 50 of these A320 will be operational by 2013. The first unit of the plane arrived on 8 December, 2005.
In 1993, Air Asia was established and started to operate on November 18, 1996. The airline industry was originally founded by DRB-Hicom which is a government-owned conglomerate. Fernandes proceeded to engineer a notable and significant turnaround, turning an Air Asia a profit in 2002 and establishing new routes from its hub in Kuala Lumpur International Airport rapidly.
On December 2, 2001, Air Asia was purchased by Tony Fernandes. The industry is operating scheduled domestic as well as international flight and known as the largest low-fare in Asia. Air Asia is a pioneer when it comes to low-cost travelling and the first industry in the region to implement ticketless travel and unassigned seats. Nonetheless, as of February 5, 2009, Air Asia has implemented allocated seating for their guests across all their flights which include Thai Air Asia and Indonesia Air Asia. The main base of Air Asia is the Low Cost Carrier Terminal located at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
The company aims on enabling more people to travel by air by providing them hassle-free, no frills and low-cost airline services. Accordingly, the advent of aviation deregulation has been able to provide opportunities to different airline industries and started