AirAsia Economy Class Review – The Best Budget Airline in Asia?

• Airline: Air Asia
• Class: Economy
• Aircraft: Airbus A320-200
• Route: Colombo (CMB) to Kuala Lumpur (KUL)
• Flight time: 3 Hours 40 Minutes

AirAsia is an absolute pioneer of budget travelling with humble branding, low fares and no frills so I always disembark as a happy customer.

They don’t promise me the world but they always over-deliver, from outstanding crew members with excellent customer service skills to serving the most iconic aeroplane meal ever.

I’ve been on over 25 AirAsia flights in the past and it has always been a great experience.

AirAsia lets you tailor your own flight experience with additional meal luggage or extra legroom suits or just a basic flight for an extremely low fare which the airline is all about.

Pictured is the ride to Kuala Lumpur, the good old Airbus A320 with a special Universiti livery.

AirAsia currently is operating 100 of the A320s and they still have 362 Airbus A321neo’s on order, which were delayed due to the pandemic, but now being delivered later in 2024.

But for now, let’s board the plane and see what Air Asia has in store for us. 

AirAsia is one of my favourite budget airlines in the world. I had a very lovely welcome at the door by the crew who were in a very good mood.

AirAsia’s fleet has 180 seats in a standard 3-3 configuration. You can always purchase a seat with increased legroom on the emergency exit row, which is what I did.

I asked very nicely at the check-in counter whether I could have the emergency row which comes with a little bit more leg room, as you can see in the picture, it enhanced my travel experience a lot. 

In terms of the in-flight entertainment on AirAsia, there’s no personal screen so instead, you can browse the onboard magazine which also features the menu for on-board purchases if you haven’t pre-booked your meal or you can make use of the in-flight WiFi.

Unfortunately, the WiFi wasn’t working on my flight so I can’t give my review of it on this particular flight. But in my previous experience, AirAsia offer a pretty stable connection.

In economy class, Air Asia does not provide a free in-flight meal so you have to either book it ahead as an extra or purchase a meal on the flight.

I did that, so here we are, Uncle Chin Chicken Rice which is one of my absolute favourites and a very iconic meal in the aviation industry. It has been around for many, many years and it’s just delicious.

The Uncle Chin Chicken Rice was just as good as I remembered it.

On this flight, there was one particular crew member that stood out to me. Her name is Jody, and Jody was an absolute superstar. She had a huge smile on her face, was very active and the way she was communicating with the passengers was exemplary. She takes huge pride in her job, and that’s what I love to see. 

It was a stark difference from Qatar Airways who banned me. They claim to be a world-class airline or are considered the best airline in the world. Given that they promote their crew heavily as one of the best in the world, you’d have much higher expectations.

While you would have lower expectations from AirAsia, their cabin crew is truly world-class and what Jody represented on this flight was incredible. Genuinely one of the best crews I’ve seen in a very, very long time.

Jody, you are an AirAsia superstar, and I hope your company sees that and recognises that. 

Next is the loo review on the Airbus A320 of AirAsia. You can tell it’s a little bit dated, but then this plane has been flying for 9, almost 10 years.

I’m not quite sure how long AirAsia will keep their A320s in service, but I reckon this one is probably will fly another 5 to 10 years max.

Other than that, the loo was acceptable.

We started our descent into KL International Airport. There are two terminals or two airports in Kuala Lumpur. One of them is for Malaysia Airlines and all the other international airlines, and this one is solely for AirAsia and budget airlines, which opened I think 4 or 5 years ago.

Once I got my suitcase, I made my way to Kuala Lumpur city centre, which is an hour or so drive from the airport, depending on the traffic.

On my way, I was able to see the 2nd tallest building in the world, the Merdeka 118. I still remember back in the day when the Petronas Twin Towers were considered the tallest. Time flies indeed.

AirAsia was a brilliant flight. With a certain price tag comes certain expectations, right? And AirAsia has a very low price tag. But they exceed expectations.

The food was amazing, the seat was great, I had my own row, crew were phenomenal.

As I said earlier, Jody was an amazing asset to the company, so I hope she gets the recognition that she deserves. It’s great to see when people love their job.

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That’s it, guys. Wherever you are off to next, have a safe trip.

About the Author

Josh Cahill is an award-winning Aviation YouTuber who is reportedly one of the most-watched flight reviewers on the internet. He organised Afghanistan’s first all-female flight together with Kam Air in February 2021 on a flight from Herat to Kabul for which he received the Aviation Achievement Award. His favourite hobby? Flying exotic airlines nobody has ever heard of.