AirAsia X (D7, Kuala Lumpur International) would consider deferring the delivery of its fleet of ten A350-900s should the European market fail to recover by the time they are scheduled to begin arriving - in 2018/19.
When posed a question concerning AirAsia X' much anticipated return to Europe in an interview with Reuters newswire, CEO Azran Osman Rani said: “That really is conditional on the whole European economy bouncing back, travel from Europe to Asia being in a situation where demand exceeds supply, which isn’t the case now because of the recession there and a lot of capacity from the Middle East carriers.”
AirAsia X currently operates a fleet of nineteen A330s and two A340-300s with orders for thirty-nine A330-300s and fifty A330neos.
Last year, AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes said he was determined to see AirAsia X return to Europe at some point in the near future. Among the budget carrier group's options would be to use its Thai AirAsia X (XJ, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi) subsidiary to reopen flights to Paris Orly and London, which were terminated in 2011 as a result of their poor financial performance.
However, Azran Osman Rani said that his primary concern for the moment is consolidating his carrier's presence in the Asia Pacific region.
"My immediate strategic focus is growing in depth and concentration across Asia Pacific instead of spreading thinly in going into Europe, US and Africa," he said.
Alongside Thai AirAsia X, the longhaul budget carrier serves Australia, China, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Taiwan, and Nepal with its latest sibling, Indonesia AirAsia X (IDX, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta), set to launch in December this year.
