Today I’m flying one of the cheapest airlines in the world in this Air Asia Review. I took a short 22 minute flight from Penang to Langkawi in Malaysia. The price of the one way fare… a ludicrous £10 (MYR 62). After adding a few extras (seat selection, meal and hold luggage) it became almost £20 (MYR 110) per person. That’s definitely the cheapest flight I’ve taken in a while, perhaps only beaten by Ryanair. The flight was delayed a bit but overall the experience was fine as far as budget airlines go. And to add a bit of excitement we flew on this special General Electric Livery Airbus A320.
Air Asia
Air Asia is Malaysia’s largest airline and has won the Skytrax award for “World’s Best Low-Cost Airline” an astounding 14 times in a row. Founded in 1993 as a full-service airline, they almost went bankrupt before rebranding as the budget airline we see today.
There are many offshoots of Air Asia named after the market they operate in. The largest of which is Thai Air Asia. They also operate long haul flights under the seperate Air Asia X name. Today though, we were flying on the regular Air Asia, though in a special plane, as I’ll explain later…
Like many budget airlines, Air Asia’s fleet is exclusively made up of Airbus A320 family aircraft. They have over 100 Airbus A320s accross their various subsidiaries plus a further 362 Airbus A321s on order. They also have a few Airbus A330s under the Air Asia X long haul fleet. Of course being a budget airline the interior is pretty basic.
Flight Details
Penang and Langkawi are just 80 miles / 129 km apart in a straight line, so this flight was short. So short in fact that our highest cruising altitude was just 10,000ft (3,300m). They schedule the flight as being 40 minutes long but in reality it’s usually about 20 minutes which means no time for most in flight service. Barely any time to even hop to the toilet between the seat belt sign being turned on and off.
Despite being such a short flight though it did actually end up delayed. As the departure time of 15:45 came and went our plane hadn’t even arrived yet. Eventually it did arrive 45 minutes late and we departed at 16:31. Our estimated arrival time was actually 16:25 which meant we hadn’t even taken off at the time of our expected departure. But that’s just a quirk of ridiculously short flights. Finally we ended up landing at 16:53, just under 30 minutes late. Not a huge issue in the grand scheme of things. I just found it amusing our delay was longer than the actual flight time.
The Plane & Seat
Our aircraft today was a 13 year old Airbus A320-200 (registered 9m-AQB). Though looking at it you wouldn’t think it’s an Air Asia aircraft thanks to the special General Electric Livery. It has a special blue livery depicting all the things built by General Electric to commemorate Air Asia’s partnership with them (they use GE engines).
I suppose a good (or bad) thing about Air Asia, or most budget airlines for that matter, is that you know what you’re getting yourself into. They have exactly the same product accross the entire fleet. With a standard 3-3 seating configuration, 29″ of seat pitch and 18″ seat width, Air Asia’s cabin is extremely average. The seat felt fine, comparable to other budget airlines like Ryanair or easyJet. The leather seats were also relatively comfy and well padded. More than enough for a short 20 minute flight.
Below is a picture of the seats. Space is limited, but overall it was kept clean and felt well reasonably well maintained. In the seat back pocket you’ll also find an inflight/duty free menu. Plus other standard stuff like a coat hook, tray table, air conditioning nozzles… Otherwise there’s not much to note, it’s a basic product reflected by the low price.
Food & Service
I ordered Pak Nasser’s Nasi Lemak which cost MYR 15.9 (£2.75) and came with a bottle of water. I’m not sure who Pak Nasser is, but they make a good Nasi Lemak. For airline food the flavours where good with fluffy rice, spicy sambal and salty dried anchovies. It’s also slightly cheaper if you preorder online. It would have cost MYR 17 (£2.95) to buy on the plane.
Since the flight was so short the cabin crew didn’t actually take any hot food orders in flight and just handed out meals to people who had preordered. They also gave it to me in a plastic bag and requested I wait until we landed before eating. Perfectly understandable given there was only about 10 minutes of flight time where the seat belt sign was switched off. So I waited until we arrived at our hotel which was a 10 minute taxi ride from the airport and it was still warm.
If you want to see the full menu of what’s on offer on a standard Air Asia flight they have the Santan Inflight menu online here. The menu is quite extensive and pretty reasonably priced. With lot’s of cold and hot meals and snacks you should be able to find something if you’re hungry. Plus there’s also an average duty free menu, if you fancy buying an Air Asia model plane or something. Below is a sample of the sort of thing on offer and prices:
Final Thoughts
Overall I would say Air Asia is a great airline as long as you know what you’re getting yourself into. Like every budget airline the seat is cramped, there is no free service and you’ll find yourself paying extra for every little thing. But the price is so low I can forgive them for that. It’s a great way to travel around South East Asia on the cheap.
More from me…
If you liked my Air Asia Review, please feel free to check out other related posts I’ve written:
- Ultimate Guide to British Airways Executive Club
- Is the Avios Subscription Worth It? – It could be if you use it right
- The No1 Lounge at London Gatwick’s South Terminal – surprisingly good
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