AirAsia X, the long haul affiliate of Asia’s largest low cost airline, has signed a Memorandum of Understand (MOU) with Airbus for 50 A330-900neo aircraft. The agreement sees the airline become a launch customer for the latest version of the best-selling widebody. AirAsia X will also be one of the first operators of the aircraft, with deliveries to the carrier scheduled to begin in 2018.

“We have been encouraging Airbus to launch this new version of the A330 for some time now,” said Tony Fernandes, co-founder and director of AirAsia X. ”I am pleased that they are offering this choice and bringing us the aircraft we truly need to develop further our low cost long haul model. We are 100 per cent sure that the A330neo will be quite unbeatable in its size category and we look forward to enabling more people to fly further more often aboard this great aircraft.”

The latest MOU from AirAsia X further consolidates the position of the AirAsia Group as one of Airbus’s largest airline customers in the world. In total the Group has ordered 536 Airbus aircraft, excluding the A330neo MOU.