AirAsia announces $30B deal to buy 100 planes from Airbus
Kobe steel indicted in Japan
MALAYSIAN budget airline AirAsia on Thursday announced an additional order of 34 Airbus A330neo planes, bringing the total value of its expanded 100-plane order to $30 billion as it sets its sights on European routes.
The first delivery of the jets will arrive towards the end of 2019 and will allow the airline to take on longer non-stop routes to Europe, AirAsia boss Tony Fernandes said at a media event.
These will be used by its long-haul arm, AirAsia X, replacing its older first-generation A330s.
“We can now start the London route ... This plane allows us to fly to Brazil, Namibia and anywhere we want,” he said.
The Kuala Lumpur-London route was dropped in 2012 due to low demand and high fuel prices.
“We lobbied hard for the A330neo after seeing the success of the A320neo, and working closely with Airbus, we have arrived at an aircraft that we are confident will allow us to expand our low fares offering beyond Asia Pacific to the rest of the world,” AirAsia X chief executive Kamarudin Meranun said.
The deal makes AirAsia the biggest Asian customer of European aviation giant Airbus, which has been locked in a tight battle for dominance with US rival Boeing.
The twin-aisled A330neos are a fuelefficient upgrade of the current A330s operated by AirAsia. Fitted with Rolls Royce Trent 7000 engines, the planes will reduce fuel consumption by 25 percent, the planemakers said.
But the jet has been edged out by the newer Boeing 787 and was de- pending on AirAsia to revive sales of the upgraded long-haul plane.
Boeing on Thursday said it had firmed up an order for at least 10 787s from Hawaiian Airlines after the airline cancelled an order for the A330neo.
Fernandes also said Airasia and Airbus have began “talks” to explore cooperation to develop an industrial aviation centre in Malaysia which will include a repair and overhaul facility and a training centre.
AirAsia is Asia’s largest budget carrier by fleet size but has been hit by some negative publicity recently.
In May, Indian authorities raided the airline’s local offices and accused Fernandes of illegally obtaining operating licences.
Earlier that month, Fernandes apologised for a controversial stunt endorsing Malaysia’s scandal-tainted prime minister Najib Razak in the country’s general election, in which he suffered a stunning defeat.
Fernandes, a millionaire ex-music executive, has styled himself as Asia’s answer to British tycoon Richard Branson. JAPANESE prosecutors on Thursday indicted Kobe Steel after it admitted to faking strength and quality data, one of the latest corporate scandals that have battered the country’s reputation for quality.
Japan’s third largest steelmaker was charged with violating the country’s unfair competition law in relation to data falsification up to September 2017, the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office said in a statement.
In October last year Kobe Steel said its employees had misrepresented strength and quality data, which had been submitted for products sold to hundreds of clients worldwide.
It was the latest in a string of revelations to have undermined faith in Japan Inc.
Local media reported that prosecutors have no plan to indict individual employees involved in the scandal at Kobe.
“We are taking this matter brought against us very seriously,” the company said in a statement apologising for the indictment.
The products affected by the scandal included wires used in car engines and tyres, as well as aluminium used to manufacture Japan’s famous bullet trains.
It was just one of a long line of revelations that have rocked the nation’s manufacturing industry after similar quality-control scandals hit industrial titans ranging from carmaker Nissan to Mitsubishi Materials.
Prosecutors and police raided Kobe’s headquarters last month, after the company, founded in 1905, said its misconduct over some of its quality controls traces back to the 1970s.