Review of Air Asia flight Yogyakarta → Kuala Lumpur in Economy

We live in Iceland and we went to Australia for the end of the year holidays to see relatives who live there – we haven’t been there for five years. And as Australia is quite far from Iceland – the distance between Keflavík and Melbourne would be 16,960 kms if there was a direct flight – I went to a few places in Asia before and after Australia.

I booked the following flights:
Keflavík to London, Icelandair, business class, B737
London to Abu Dhabi, Etihad, business class, A380
Abu Dhabi to Jakarta, Etihad by Wamos, business class, A330
Yogyakarta to Kuala Lumpur, Air Asia, economy, A320
Kuala Lumpur to Manila, Philippine Airlines, business class, A321
Manilla to Sydney, Philippine Airlines, business class, A330
Canberra to Melbourne, Qantas, economy, B717
Melbourne to Hobart, Virgin Australia, economy, B737
Hobart to Melbourne, Jetstar, economy, A320
Melbourne to Manilla, Philippine Airlines, business class, A330
Manilla to Kuala Lumpur, Philippine Airlines, business class, A320
Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok, Malaysia Airlines, business class, B737,
Bangkok to Hongkong, Emirates, first class, A380
Hongkong to Manila, Air Asia Philippines, economy, A320
Manila to Panglao, Cebu Pacific, economy, A321
Cebu to Singapore, Singapore Airlines, business class, A350
Singapore to London, Singapore Airlines, business class, A380
London to Keflavík, British Airways, business class, A320


Air Asia was originally founded in 1996. It was not very successful and was bought for 1 Malaysian ringgit by investors led by Tony Fernandes in 2001. It has been developed into South-East Asia’s most successful low-cost airline. The business model was a low-cost model with low fares, aggressive marketing directed towards younger customers and new planes – quite the opposite of what the rather conservative Malaysia Airlines offered at that time. Air Asia offered over 2,000,000 available seats a year only two years after it had been founded and over 17,000,000 seats another five years later.

I flew Air Asia a lot in the early 2000s and I liked it: nice planes, great cabin crew, lots of destinations, low fares, very affordable extras (extra legroom, check-in luggage) and pre-ordered hot meals.

Air Asia has 12 flights a week between Yogyakarta, Indonesia and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Malaysia Airlines offer two flights a week.

Yogyakarta’s new airport is quite far from the city centre 42 kms away. The taxi took 1 hour and 15 minutes and cost me IDR 250,000 (about US$ 16). There’s also a train link. The regular train takes 39 minutes and costs IDR 20,000 (US$ 1.30) and the non-stop train takes 35 minutes and costs IDR 50,000 (US$ 3.20).

Most flights from Yogyakarta are domestic flights with around 13 direct flights to Jakarta’s two airports. Other domestic flights include Bali, Kualanamu, Lombok, Makassar, Palembang, Pekanberu, Pontianak and Samarinda. The only international flights are to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. 

The airport is big, modern, spacious and was not crowded when I was there.

I had checked in on-line. I went to security, spent my remaining Indonesian rupiahs on drinks, went through another security and passport control to the international flight zone. I found myself in a large, modern area with plenty of seating but no shops.

The boarding gate for our flight.

Our plane for this flight was 9M-AGC, an A320-200 built in 2017 for Air Asia.

All narrow-body Air Asia flights offer economy class only, typically with 180 seats.

The cabin crew was very welcoming as we were boarding the aircraft.

I booked a first row seat for a very small additional fee. Legroom was good.

The cabin was in good condition.

An expected flight time of 2 hours and 25 minutes was announced.

Push-back was at 12.20 for a scheduled departure time of 11.45. We took off at 12.32.

I had pre-ordered chicken rice for a very low price. It was served before the regular buy-on-board service. 

It was better than a typical economy class meal. A bottle of water was included.

The cabin crew was professional and efficient.

The rest of the flight was uneventful.

We landed at 15.43 and were at the gate at 15.50 for a scheduled arrival time of 15.15.