Review of Air Asia flight from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur in Economy

AXM

AK - Air Asia

Flight taken on 14 November 2024
AK702
08:55 01h 00m 09:55
Model Airbus A320
Class Economy
Seat 8A
Jett Tyler
305 · 59 · 6 · 13

A Brief Backstory of Air Asia!


Air Asia formed back in late 1993 as a full service airline to compete with Malaysia Airlines. By 2001 the airline was put up for sale and bought by Malaysian business men Tony Fernandes and Kamarudin Meranun. The two men reinvented the airline as a budget airline and began to expand their budget airline empire from then onwards!


The airline used Boeing 737-300 from 1993 to 2009, but from its remodelling in the early 2000s, the airline began to use the Airbus A320ceo (and later A320neo) as the main aircraft of choice. The airline has hired out in the early 2000s Boeing 747-200 & McDonnell-Douglas MD11 for Haji Charters to Saudi Arabia.


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Some 20 years later the airline's main Malaysian branch of the business has grown to over 100 Airbus A320 aircraft with over 300 Airbus A321neo aircraft on order which will likely form the backbone of the Air Asia fleet going forward. There is also a Malaysian long-haul branch of the Air Asia Group known as Air Asia X which focuses of flying the Airbus A330.


Air Asia has also established franchises to operate bases in Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines as well as former Air Asia franchises that operated in Japan & India. The airline group has been a forerunner in opening up air travel to the masses in across Asia and you can fly the airline (with connections) from India or Saudi Arabia all the way to Australia.


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But what is it like flying Air Asia in 2024 & 2025? Well I had the chance to fly the airline on my trip to Asia for only £45 on a Singapore to Kuala Lumpur flight, it was a good way to tick off a new airline for me as I haven't flown many Asian air carriers before.


Singapore Changi Terminal 4


Flight routing


Terminal 4 is the newest Terminal facility at Singapore Changi. Its not connected as easily compare to the other three Terminals and requires a bus shuttle that runs from the other Terminals to T4. Terminal 4 takes up most of the budget airline flights at Singapore Changi (except Scoot) as well as Fiji Airways, Cathay Pacific and Korean Air flights. 


I took a taxi from my Hotel to the Terminal 4 which cost me about SG$25 (£15), a bargain for a 20 minute ride to a major airport considering a ride like that in London to Heathrow would likely cost a good £30+ by comparison! I could have used the Metro using the reverse of the route I used when I arrived from Helsinki a few days earlier, but as it was an early start for me and a possible 45 minute journey with a change and I didn't know how busy Singapore Changi would be, I opted to gamble on a taxi- which in my opinion paid off for once!





Getting airside was very easy, I think I got through after the main early rush as I opted for a flight departing just before 9am, well after the first flights of the day which fly out around 06am to 8am. I found a little COFFEE BEAN Café outlet where I grabbed a quick breakfast, for about £8 I got a pastry, bottle of water & coffee as a meal deal- which I thought was a decent offer for an Airport Café. I opted to save the water for the day ahead as it was going to be very hot and humid in Malaysia!


The trays were mainly collected by a little robot scooting around the café, which I thought was a fun little gimmick! Robots like this are popular in Asia, especially Japan! I wonder when they'll start making their way to the UK???


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After leaving the café, I passed a sculpture work of a travelling family, which was kind of cool to see.


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I went to the main Gate area, and found that there was an area with good runway views and that the aircraft were taxiing up to the Runway and departing from this area. The only downside was shooting into the sun and any dirt on the windows did show that, but it was better than nothing. Moving around the Gate area, I found at the end of the section a gaming corner full of arcade games and a football table, great way to entertain younger travellers during a wait for a flight!





Even though the morning rush was over, I saw quite a few SCOOT and Singapore Airlines aircraft taxing for the mid-morning departures, as well as some aircraft returning on short-haul flights back to their bases after doing the short-medium haul early flights. I have heard that taking photos of planes at Singapore Changi is becoming a bit more difficult as security is clamping down, but I wasn't bothered by anyone working at Changi and I wasn't approached by any security staff on this morning.





My flight was soon given a plane and I followed it in from Kuala Lumpur. My flight was operated by an Airbus A320 in a "special livery" but I'll explain more on the next chapter… Either way it eventually arrived so I went to catch my flight as boarding was starting to get underway!


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Air Asia AK702 (SIN-KUL)



My first flight with Air Asia was to be operated by an Airbus A320ceo registered as 9M-DAF, this aircraft was delivered brand new to Air Asia's Malaysian airline branch in October 2009 as 9M-AHU. From April 2015 to early 2021 it flew for Air Asia India as VT-BLR when it was withdrawn from use and stored in India and Malaysia until 2022. It became 9M-DAF in early 2023 when it was leased off to a new Malaysian start up budget airline called "MYAirline" which lasted for 10 months before that airline ceased operations. Keeping its new base livery and registration, Air Asia reclaimed the aircraft and placed the Air Asia tail design & titles on the fuselage which it was operating in November 2024, I don't know if or when it'll return to the current Air Asia livery.


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Boarding began as I arrived, Air Asia boarded this flight from the rear rows to the forward section. Given I was seated in Seat 8A, I was in the last group for boarding. A bit of a role-reversal to what I am used to experiencing in Europe. On this flight from Singapore Changi we had a jet-bridge boarding, I'm not sure what Air Asia is like for open-boards compare to other major European budget airlines who favour open boards wherever possible.





The seats on this Air Asia (or is it MyAirline) Airbus A320 are very basic in design. The table was small, but still bigger than the one I had on Spirit Airlines back in 2018! I didn't have an extra legroom seat, but there was enough room for me. The leather seat covering was in Grey with hints of red and white plastic on the seat back.


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Just as boarding completed and before we started pushing back, I noticed a small mist of humidity dancing around the top of the cabin by the cabin lights. This is perfectly normal around the Far East, its a little novelty for me seeing this as I don't get to see stuff like this in Europe. I was really pleased with my Wing/Engine view from Seat 8A!


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After pushing back 10 minutes early, we made the short taxi to the Runway we were departing from, which was Runway 02C. My GoPro failed to record the take off as it overheated during recording and I lost the footage, but I did grab some decent images on my iPhone as we took off into a beautiful day over Singapore for the short flight across to neighbouring Malaysia!





I had a look at the magazines provided by Air Asia which includes their Duty Free catalogue and inflight menu for snacks & drinks. Everything is at a cost, and displayed in Malaysia Ringgits (MYR) on this flight. I found a section in the Duty Free magazine showcasing the route map of Air Asia in late-2024 and early-2025 across all the Air Asia franchises, I was a bit surprised to see a route to Nairobi was showcased. Air Asia did serve London Stansted with Air Asia X many years ago with Airbus A340s, I would be interested to see Air Asia back in the UK offering cheap long-haul flights into Asia… Whether or not it'll come to fruition remains to be seen…


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Overall it was a lovely day for watching the world pass from 30,000ft as we had a mostly clear day with some scattered clouds as we flew along the Malaysian coastlines. on our Northern crossing. Our flight would pass quickly as this 1 hour banked flight would take us about 50 minutes of flying time.


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Weeks before my flight I had put through a pre-order to try out an inflight-meal, and it was promptly delivered. I had a basic chicken and rice from "Uncle Chin's" option with some sauces to flavour (chili or soy sauce, I used the chili as I like spice) and paired with a hot drink to which I had a basic Americano with some creamer. Personally I'd have preferred a cold drink with a main dish like this, but beggars can't be choosers. There are about 12 options you can chose for pre-order which is a really good selection!


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I'd just wrapped up eating my food when we started our descent into Kuala Lumpur, there was a few good views of Malaysia on our descent, the crew cleared up the rubbish and I handed my chicken dinner plate to them, but I was still going through my coffee, so I was going to be drinking that through to landing!


As we neared Kuala Lumpur International Airport, the cities and towns vanished in favour of a rural countryside as KLIA is nearly 30 miles away from the main Kuala Lumpur city itself.





We arrived on Runway 33, which is the main Runway used for arrivals and departures, we taxied over to KLIA Terminal 2. We parked up on stand, passing the head-quarters of Air Asia fittingly. The Terminal 2 is used mainly by Low-Cost Airlines and is mainly seen hosting Air Asia. Other airlines do use this facility, as I'll showcase in a future report.





I held back to wait for the rest of the passengers to depart so I could obtain a few more cabin shots of the Airbus A320 I'd just had a very short flight on. A very basic cabin, not unusual for a low-cost airline. The seats were comfortable enough for this sub-1 hour flight from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, but I am not sure if they'd be very comfortable on a longer flight like Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong for example.


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I exited the plane and began making my way over to boarder control for Malaysia, as I left I got this great view of my flight with the Air Asia HQ building behind the Airbus A320. 


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Malaysia had an easy enough entry form that you could do online through your smart phones. Within 10 minutes I had it filled out and I cleared passport control. As a UK citizen, I don't need a visa to enter the country of Malaysia and simply just need to have a date of departure within 90 days and at least 6 months validity on your passport as well as filling the entry form out.


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Display all

Product ratings

Airline

Air Asia 7.0

  • Cabin8.0 / 10
  • Cabin crew8.0 / 10
  • Entertainment/wifi5.0 / 10
  • Buy-on-board menu7.0 / 10
Departure airport

Singapore - SIN8.6

  • Efficiency9.0 / 10
  • Access7.5 / 10
  • Services9.0 / 10
  • Cleanliness9.0 / 10
Arrival Airport

Kuala Lumpur - KUL8.8

  • Efficiency9.0 / 10
  • Access9.0 / 10
  • Services8.0 / 10
  • Cleanliness9.0 / 10

Conclusion

Air Asia was a good option for budget friendly travel within Asia as well as having a solid network and multiple frequencies. I would certainly give Air Asia another flight on a future trip!

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Comments (6)

  • Seems like cost-cutting is doing it's job in AK too. The aircraft taken over and the airline didn't do a thing to change their livery or their cabin into a full AK livery. Those seats are not standard to AirAsia, but rather the old seats that MYAirline was using.

    I tend to enjoy flying with AirAsia in general, though they've made some questionable changes in the past few years including creating the website they are using now. It's a bit more of a **** to navigate through

    Uncle Chin's probably the most famous dish of AK 😄

    Thanks for the report though!

    • yes, the previous Superapp was a pain in the rump 😂. the BIG rewards system has also been a little questionable, especially concerning the value of a single point...

      it's good to see that AirAsia is taking some steps to address this, with the new MOVE app being much more user-friendly. as someone who's flown with airasia 9 times in the past year, this definitely saves time!

    • Given budget airlines want their planes flying and not taking out of action for "cosmetic" work that's not essential. It made for an interesting experience regardless to fly a defunct airline within another airline. Bit like some of those ex-WOW Air planes flying in Vietnam for a bit before they got work done. Glad you enjoyed the report and I look forward to enjoying Air Asia again in the future! 😀

  • Nice review! AirAsia is usually my first choice when flying throughout much of Southeast Asia, as their fares are often much lower than the legacy carriers. These seats you encountered are the ex MYAirline seats, which are more akin to ULCC seats. AirAsia's seats are better padded than these, they look much thicker and are more like current Air France and the Singapore Airlines 737-800NG seats. Food is usually pretty good, there are some weird combo prices (a drink with curry puffs is RM9, while an a-la-carte drink is ~10-12 ringgit!) Their nasi lemak is a favourite, along with the Chicken Rice which is also popular. Otherwise, seems like a pleasant flight!

    Thanks for sharing! 😀

    • Glad you enjoyed the read! There aren't many of these ex-MYAirline planes flying for Air Asia, so at least it was a little novely. Hopefully I'll get the full Air Asia experience in the future! 😄

  • nice trip report on airasia as i used to fly airasia to penang and bangkok (DMK) with A320 and a321Neo even the nice ride on the former myairline a320 compare to a320 and a320Neo that deploy to KLIA daily speaking of which it was a nice planespotting view while waiting for the a320 and nice buy on board meal on the short flight to KL despite i never purchase any buy on board items during my ride to either Penang and bangkok DMK hope you enjoy your visit to KL.

    • Glad you liked it, I really wanted to enjoy a good scope of Air Asia, I'm certainly going to enjoy a longer flight in the future!

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