The deliveries keep coming thick and fast from Toulouse, with AirAsia affiliate – Thai AirAsia X taking delivery of their first Airbus A330-900neo.
Thai AirAsia X Airbus A330-900neo – Image, Airbus
The aircraft was delivered via lessor Avolon and is the first of two A330neos set to join the airline’s fleet by the end of the year. A total of 66 A330-900neo aircraft are on firm order, with 34 more in the wings – and in turn, the largest customer for the type.
The first one will operate out of its new base of Bangkok’s Don Mueang International Airport in Thailand, with plans to support the growth of the airline to areas such as Australia, Japan and South Korea.
Passenger experience could be a bit of a mixed picture – with the aircraft split in having:
- 12 Flatbed seats in a 2-2-2 formation
- 365 Economy Class seats in a 3-3-3 formation
- Total: 377 seats
AirAsia X operates currently operates 36 A330-300 family aircraft.
377 seats…
Airbus says
“The A330neo is the true new-generation aircraft building on the most popular wide-body A330’s features and leveraging on A350 XWB technology. Powered by the latest Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engines, the A330neo provides an unprecedented level of efficiency – with 25% lower fuel burn per seat than previous generation competitors.”
However, cramming 3-3-3 in the back of the plane isn’t going to be a fun passenger experience in terms of width (but maybe passable in legroom) as @thatjohn reported:
Down the back, the high-density 3-3-3 layout inherited from the A300 fifty years ago is as narrow as ever, although surprisingly good legroom even in ten cheap seats. This is pretty good for an LCC, to be honest, and at the price… 🤷♂️ #PAS19 #PaxEx #avgeek pic.twitter.com/iYlVYoWnF6
— John Walton 🏳️🌈 ✈️ 💺 (@thatjohn) June 17, 2019
At least it isn’t the 460 seater special from Cebu Pacific that’s coming up.
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Yes, the 3-3-3 layout may give us a horrible initial impression but what is good is the 32″ seat pitch – anyone who is up to 180 cm tall and not weigh above 80 kgs should find it OK for an Airasia X flight. Their Quiet Zone cabin is very nice but these days, the price of these seats has gone up to unreasonable levels. So unless you are on a flight longer than 6 hours (or on a red eye flight), the normal economy cabin should be OK.