AirAsia has signed a memorandum of understanding that covers an order for 50 Airbus A321XLRs plus conversion rights for 20 more from its existing A321neo orders. The order's list-price value is $12.3 billion, and deliveries are scheduled for 2028-32, though AirAsia is hoping they could start as soon as 2027, said Tony Fernandes, chief executive of parent Capital A, during a 4 July media briefing. The agreement had been signed in Paris by Fernandes and Airbus commercial chief executive Christian Scherer, in the presence of Malaysian prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, who is on an official visit to the French capital. "This order enables us to have a narrowbody fleet that can cover the world," says Fernandes, noting that an XLR can fly for about 8.6h, compared with 5.6h for an A321neo. "We gave people in ASEAN the opportunity to explore Asia – now we want the world to see ASEAN, and ASEAN to see the world. The A321XLR and A321LR are the game changers enabling this vision, and we are proud to lead the charge in making our world smaller," states Fernandes in a press release. With the XLRs, Fernandes explains, the carrier would operate routes from Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok to European cities and Africa with a stop in the Middle East. It can also fly to North America's east coast via Europe and the west coast via Japan or Honolulu. "We always wanted to be a narrowbody aircraft operator," he says, but this was not possible with the previous iterations of Airbus narrowbodies. The carrier has been "very, very determined to get Airbus to build us an aircraft that could really meet our ambition", he adds. "A narrowbody obviously gives us a lot less risk in terms of starting new routes, and gives us the opportunity to go to many more destinations that we couldn't have gone to before, because a 380-seat aircraft would limit the number of destinations." The latest order raises questions about AirAsia X's existing order for 15 A330neos, given its ambition to be a narrowbody operator. AirAsia also has more than 350 A321neos on order. For now, Fernandes indicates that the widebody order remains intact. He says the airline is "in discussions with Airbus on what to do with our A330 order, but no cancelations at the moment". At the same time, the Malaysian low-cost carrier is also looking to finalize, next month, another order of up to 150 aircraft with two manufacturers, says Fernandes, likely alluding to a regional jet order for which Embraer E2s and Airbus A220s are key contenders. He adds that once the order is placed, "at that point, we would complete our strategy, and we would know our direction for [the] A330". The XLR deal has been announced now rather than at last month's Paris air show because the airline was having to "deal with a lot of uncertainty" at that time, says Fernandes. "But by announcing this deal, I'm really announcing to the world that our restructuring is almost done," he adds. Capital A is currently under a distressed PN17 status on Bursa Malaysia. However, once it disposes of the aviation group, "then Capital A is virtually out of PN17, just some administrative issues and court issues." Regarding the disposal, he says Capital A has managed to get the majority of its consent letters, has raised MYR1 billion ($237 million) in capital, and is hoping to resubmit an approval request to the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission "in the next week or so". During the briefing, Fernandes expanded on the carrier's financing plans for the future, saying that while it had relied on sale-and-leasebacks, it was starting to look at other options. He reveals that the carrier is currently being rated – for the first time – by international ratings agencies, and plans to place its first bond as soon as October. "We will start to go back to ECAs, capital markets, the debt market, as I just mentioned, the bond market as well," he says, adding that the carrier is working with two ratings agencies. "And so you know, as interest rates begin to moderate, which I'm hoping they will soon – it is inevitable – then we will go back into our traditional method of owning aircraft. And of course, our cash generation is getting stronger and stronger," he says. "We went out of the finance market into the operating lease market because we thought interest rates were too high and a lot of capital in the leasing market. I think we're re-evaluating that going forward," he adds. As Fernandes details plans to reach the world with its latest order, it is for now looking to expand into Europe this year using its A330 fleet. He says Istanbul is "around the corner" while one destination in western Europe and "three or four" in eastern European are also on the list. The carrier in November 2024 launched flights from Kuala Lumpur to Nairobi but announced in June 2025 that it was cancelling the flights from September. Fernandes says the cancellation was "because of aircraft", adding: "We'll be going back next year."

Italian leisure operator Neos has confirmed introduction of its eight Boeing 737 Max 8, thereby completing a fleet renewal programme started in 2021. In addition to the Max 8s, Neos has four 737-800s, aged seven to 22 years, and six 787-9s that are between six and eight years old, Cirium fleets data shows. No further aircraft are listed on order. Two of the 737-800s – both managed by CDB Aviation – joined Neos fleet in the 2022-23 period. AerCap and FTAI Aviation each manage one of the other two 737-800s, which have been part of the carrier's fleet since 2011 and 2003, respectively. Four of the Max 8s are managed by ICBC Leasing, three by Aviation Capital Group and the other by Air Lease (ALC). AerCap manages five 787s in Neos's fleet. The other Dreamliner is managed by ALC.

Flydubai has begun construction of its planned maintenance facility at Dubai World Central airport. The site is set to comprise a hangar, workshop areas and offices and is scheduled for completion in the last quarter of 2026, the UAE carrier says. It had revealed the plan to establish the airline's first purpose-build aircraft maintenance centre at the Dubai air show in 2023. Flydubai asserts the new facility will "ensure an increased level of control and quicker maintenance turnaround" for its growing fleet. The MRO site "underscores Flydubai's dedication to strengthening its in-house capabilities and reflects the carrier's growing maturity", it adds. Cirium ground events data shows that Indian MRO provider GMR Aero Technic completed 18 base maintenance checks for Flydubai's Boeing 737 fleet at its facility in Hyderabad over the past 12 months, while Emirates Engineering conducted 10 airframe checks for the budget airline in Dubai. Emirates and Flydubai are both owned by Dubai's government. Launched in 2009, Flydubai has 60 737 Max 8s, three Max 9s and 28 737-800s in operation. The low-cost airline has another 123 Max jets and 30 787-9s on order. Its MRO division employs more than 600 engineers for line maintenance, technical services, workshops material supply, Flydubai notes.