Air France Industries News - June, 18 2009

Paris, Amstelveen,  18 Juin 2009 – AirAsia X a contract with Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance (AFI KLM E&M) covering component support for its fleet of Airbus A330s. To drive its expansion, the Malaysian carrier has ordered 25 aircraft from the European airframer. It has already taken delivery of two aircraft and the remainder will go into service between now and 2013.

The contract includes repairs, pool access and the corresponding logistics services for A330 components. It follows a first contract signed in 2007 for an A330 that AirAsia X used under an operating lease. AFI KLM E&M submitted at that time a highly competitive proposal. Since then, the group has maintained a very close commercial relationship with AirAsia X and has demonstrated its ability to deliver outstanding service level, which proved key to clinching the second agreement.

Local support. To further enhance its support, AFI KLM E&M will examine the possibility of developing local capabilities supported by growth at its Singapore logistics centre. Expanding the Singapore facility will also help sustain AFI KLM E&M operational activities on similar strategic contracts throughout the region, notably with the carriers Indigo and Kingfisher.

Developing activities in the region. "We are very honored that AirAsia X chose us for such a significant support," said Mr. Alain Bassil, Air France Industries President. "This success clearly gives us an edge on the A330 segment throughout the region. The expansion of our Singapore logistics centre will allow us to deliver high service level and to further expand our support to other operators in this important region of the world."

Azran Osman-Rani, AirAsia X CEO said: "At AirAsia and AirAsia X, we work with world class partners to ensure the best possible maintenance and services are provided for our fleet. This is crucial in our low cost operations environment where aircraft utilization is high. We are confident that our collaboration with AFI KLM E&M will be for both parties' mutual benefit."

 
About Air Asia X
Introduced in January 2007, AirAsia X is a long-haul low-cost affiliate of AirAsia with shareholders including the Virgin Group. AirAsia X's network covers destinations which are more than four hours in flight duration from Kuala Lumpur, complementing the existing AirAsia network and offering daily point-to-point frequencies to popular destinations in Australia, China, India, Korea, Japan, the Middle East and Europe.

About AFI KLM E&M 
Air France Industries and KLM Engineering & Maintenance, which joined forces following the Air France KLM merger, are world-leading multi-product MRO (Maintenance, Repair, Overhaul) providers with a joint workforce of 14,000, offering comprehensive repair capability, integration expertise, component pool operational support and a powerful logistics network. Together they support more than 1230 aircraft and serve upwards of 150 major international airlines.