AirAsia has ordered 766 A320 aircraft over the years, including 291 A320neo models with more efficient engines that have yet to be delivered. The carrier is among the top 10 operators of Airbus' most popular airliner, which was first introduced in the late 1980s and solidified the company's success as the only real competitor to Boeing in the popular single-aisle market.
The A320, the first commercial airliner to rely on fly-by-wire technology previously common only in the cockpits of military aircraft, has built a reputation as a sturdy workhorse with more than 6000 A320 family aircraft to date in service with over 300 operators.
Accidents with the aircraft are rare; the most high-profile incident in recent memory involved the landing of US Airways Flight 1549 piloted by Chesley Sullenberger in the Hudson river in January 2009, with no fatalities. The last time an Airbus single-aisle plane suffered a deadly accident was in 2010, when an A321 operated by Pakistani carrier Airblue crashed into rugged terrain in heavy rain, killing all 152 people on board.
The Airbus A320-200 is a twin-engine plane seating about 180 passengers in a single-class configuration. The plane that disappeared in Asia was delivered to AirAsia off the production line in October 2008 and belonged to the Indonesian operation of the budget airline.
Powered by CFM 56-5B engines built by a joint venture of General Electric and France's Safran, the aircraft had done 23,000 flight hours in some 13,600 flights, Airbus said on its website.
- Bloomberg
AirAsia tycoon turned impossible dream into reality
His motto is "dream the impossible" and some might have thought Tony Fernandes was doing just that when, as a child, he thought of establishing his own airline.
But as an adult, the Malaysian-born entrepreneur put into practice another maxim - "never take no for an answer" - as he made the dream a reality.
A qualified chartered accountant, educated at Epsom College in Surrey and the London School of Economics, Fernandes had previously worked in the music industry, joining Warner Music in 1989 when he was in his mid- 20s. But as record labels struggled to cope with the dawn of the internet age, he decided it was time to start pursuing that childhood ambition.
In 2001, at the age of 37, he bought the heavily indebted AirAsia from the Malaysian government for just 25p (50c). Although he had no experience in the business, he set about transforming the carrier into a short-haul, low-cost airline in the mould of those recently established in the West.
In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, he was given little chance of succeeding. In 2002, AirAsia had only two planes, but the company expanded rapidly and by the end of the decade it was flying a fleet of 86.
None of its subsidiaries has lost a plane before, and it has a generally good safety track record. But it does fly in a part of the world where air travel has expanded more quickly than the number of pilots, mechanics and air traffic controllers.
The tycoon is a flamboyant spirit in Asia's staid business world, favouring blue jeans and caps over power suits.
After entering Formula 1 racing in 2010, taking over the Lotus team (now called Caterham), he became the owner of Queen's Park Rangers in 2011. That same year he was officially welcomed into the British establishment when he received a CBE from the Queen.
Fernandes has not finished dreaming. Two years ago, while touring an Airbus factory in Wales after his airline had commissioned 100 more jets, he predicted that one day AirAsia would be "as well-known as Coca-Cola".
- Telegraph Group Ltd
