AirAsia X (D7, Kuala Lumpur International) says it will announce a "major" order with Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) in Paris this week. “This is a very significant investment,” Azran Osman-Rani, AirAsia X chief executive officer, told Bloomberg newswire, declining to give details of the order. “It shows we are on a very strong growth path.” The long-haul LCC plans to operate a fleet of forty-three aircraft by 2018, it said last month. Demand is likely to stem from the airline's much anticipated Thai subsidiary, Thai AirAsia X (XJ, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi), which is set to launch operations during the first quarter of next year. AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes has alluded to the relaunch of low-cost flights to Europe out of Bangkok Don Mueang once Thai AirAsiaX is operational. AirAsia X currently operates one A330-200, sixteen A330-300s and two A340-300s with orders for ten A350-900s and a further twelve A330-300s also on the books.