AirAsia Japan, the low-cost joint venture between AirAsia and All Nippon Airways (ANA), has received its first Airbus A320 aircraft at the French aircraft maker’s facility in Toulouse, France.
The carrier will deploy the aircraft for commercial operations in August from Narita to Sapporo and Fukuoka, and will also launch services to Okinawa with a primary fleet of two aeroplanes.
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With plans to increase its fleet to four aircraft by the end of the year, AirAsia Japan intends to begin international operations to Seoul and Pusan in Korea in October.
AirAsia Japan president Kazuyuki Iwakata said: "With the A320’s cabin comfort and operational reliability, we want to offer better access, in particular for the Japanese travelling public, and make them feel easy to fly."
According to Airbus, the aircraft’s wide cabin will allow it to take the quickest turn-around time and its reliability and extended servicing periods are claimed to offer lowest operating costs to its operators.
The A320 aircraft’s fly-by-wire controls technology allows total flight envelope and airframe structural protection, as well as improving safety and reduces pilot workload, along with offering flight smoothness and stability, with fewer mechanical parts.
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By GlobalDataPowered by CFM56 engines, the A320 aircraft is configured to carry 180 passengers.
The company said that A320’s operational flexibility depends on navigation technology, which comprises required navigation performance (RNP) capability, global position landing system, microwave landing system and future air navigation system.
To date, Airbus said that it has sold more than 8,400 A320 Family aircraft to some 360 customers and operators worldwide.
Image: Air Asia Japan’s first A320 aircraft flying from Airbus’s Toulouse facility. Photo: courtesy of Airbus.
