AirAsia X's new 'green' fleet

AZRAN Osman Rani doesn't want his customers to compare AirAsia X aircraft with cars.

But the 36-year-old chief executive officer of AirAsia's low-cost long-haul affiliate couldn't help pointing out that their first Airbus A330-300, which was handed over yesterday, burns only 2.3 litres of fuel per seat per 100 kilometres -- about half of the 4.2 litres which a Toyota Prius hybrid uses, and the lowest in its class.

"What's right for our business is right for the environment," he stressed. He sees resource use as the key environmental issue. For AirAsia X, that means fuel.

"Cutting fuel is ingrained in our culture," said Azran, with staff contributing ideas. "We have looked at every kilogramme of the plane."

After noticing that most passengers don't use footrests, for example, the airline asked Airbus to leave them out of the custom-designed new wide-body long-range aircraft. A paperless cockpit also reduces weight, as do lighter trolleys.
The Airbus 330-300 wing is "aerodynamically optimised" to make it fuel-efficient on medium and long-range routes, while the lighter yet stronger metal alloys and composites reduce the airframe weight as well as the level of engine emissions.

The engines are washed every couple of months, reducing drag -- and cutting fuel consumption by 1.5 per cent.

And with passengers booking their meals online, in advance, AirAsia X avoids carrying too much food and drinks. Raising the level of efficiency allows the airline to operate with nine crew per flight, as compared with 14 on other airlines. Again, that reduces weight.

"We are not paying lip service like the carbon offset programme, which does not change what the airline does but asks customers if they want to pay for the 'cost' of carbon emission," Azran said.

"They are saying that if passengers are concerned, they can pay and the airline will use that for planting trees. However, the net carbon emission is the same."

The new European Union emissions trading scheme will include all flights into the region from 2012. Azran had noted recently that since AirAsia X does not have a baseline (an average from 2004 through 2006), it would be accorded a special reserve of free allowances of up to a limit of one million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

If it exceeds that carbon footprint, it will then have to purchase carbon credits to offset the increase. "We'll have the lowest carbon footprint," argued the CEO, "which is better for your conscience than flying a bigger plane and paying carbon offset."

Meanwhile, Bernama reports that AirAsia Berhad group chief executive officer Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes sees a silver lining in the current global financial crisis for the low-cost airliner which has survived past turbulence.

"We have gone through SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), terrorism, the bird flu, Bali bombing. The worst was SARS but we found a way to get out of it," he said.

"During the health scare in 2003, there was no demand in passenger traffic. But we were able to create demand. With our business model, which has been successful to date, we managed to sell 5,000 seats during the SARS outbreak.

Despite the current financial crisis, Fernandes said AirAsia was not cutting down on expenditure nor was it slowing down on growth.

"We are in fact talking about accelerating our orders for the remaining 24. We are looking at a few more. Now is the right opportunity to grow while everyone else is cutting back and Airbus has the capacity."