AirAsia X Airbus A330 Quiet Zone’s A Hidden Gem

In early July, AirAsia X, the medium-haul airline of the AirAsia group, brought its new route from Malaysia to Africa to life with a spectacular event at the Group’s RedQ in Kuala Lumpur. The launch brought the sights, sounds, music, and dance of Africa to the thousands of AirAsia Allstars at the airline’s RedQ nerve center.

Photo: Michael Doran I Simple Flying

I had the pleasure of attending the launch of the Kuala Lumpur—Nairobi route and spending time with Tony Fernandes, AirAsia co-founder and CEO of parent company Capital A, and Benyamin Ismail, CEO of AirAsia X. To get there, I flew with AirAsia X on its Airbus A330 service to and from Melbourne, and as it was my first AirAsia flight I wanted to share my review.

AirAsia X is more than a low-cost carrier

In November, AirAsia X will commence intercontinental flights from Malaysia to the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, an East African city that is a major hub for African aviation. Those flights will be operated with an Airbus A330 from the AirAsia X (AAX) fleet, the same aircraft used on the airline’s Australian routes.

Photo: Airbus

AirAsia X has a fleet of 18 Airbus A330-300s that are busy on medium-haul routes from Kuala Lumpur to destinations including Melbourne, Delhi, Almaty, Tokyo, Bangkok, Sydney, Shanghai and Seoul. It is eagerly awaiting the arrival of new Airbus A330neos and A321XLRs, while affiliate airline Thai AirAsia X has eight A330-300s.

I traveled on AirAsia X flight D7 212, the daily Airbus A330-300 service from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL) to Melbourne. My arrival into Malaysia was streamlined and efficient, helped by the online digital arrival card and self-serve biometric immigration gates.

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The departure process through border control was equally as smooth, followed by a long walk through Terminal 2 to Gate P12. AAX boards its aircraft in zones and, with a seat in the Quiet Zone, I was among the first to board, with the A330 pushing back for an on-time departure.

The Quiet Zone

Flight D7 212 was operated with an Airbus A330-300, registration 9M-XXW and MSN 1596, which just happened to be the same aircraft I flew on from Melbourne. My return flight departed at 12:12 and, after a 7:05-hour flight, landed in Australia at Melbourne Airport (MEL) at 21:17, a wonderful 38 minutes ahead of schedule.

Photo: Michael Doran I Simple Flying

The Quiet Zone on this aircraft has 63 seats in a 3-3-3 layout of seven rows, situated behind the business class cabin and separated from the economy cabin by a galley and the main door. It is where you would typically expect to find premium economy and offers a third level of comfort in the 365-seat airplane.

Photo: Michael Doran I Simple Flying

The Quiet Zone aims to give passengers more peace and quiet than they may find in the economy cabin without the extra expense of a business class seat. It is available on AirAsia X flights for passengers aged ten and over and also provides speedy disembarkation, with cabin crew holding back economy passengers at the door.

Seats in the Quiet Zone can be booked when the ticket is purchased, during web check-in or at the airport check-in counter. Sitting in the quiet zone is one of the add-ons available when purchasing the ticket, and it follows a dynamic pricing structure that depends on the route, when it’s booked, demand on that flight and so on rather than a fixed-price surcharge.

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There are no screens or streamed inflight entertainment on the A330, so travelers need to bring their personal devices and downloaded content. This is important on the longer flights between Malaysia and Australia, India, Kazakhstan, and Nairobi (from November).

Time to eat

Seasoned AirAsia travelers know to order their meals online before departure to ensure their selection is available, and with more than ten hot meals to choose from, there’s something to suit all tastes. Meals can be purchased onboard, but not all choices may be available, although the snacks and drinks are plentiful.

Some main meal dishes are roast chicken with black bean sauce, traditional nasi lemak, prawn and chicken wonton noodles, Bukhara chicken biryani, Mala beef soup noodles with chicken slices and Napoletana-style pizza. The meals average around MYR 22 ($5) and can be purchased in a special-price bundle, including an add-on drink.

I have pre-ordered two meals for this flight, with the first served around one hour into the flight and the second around two hours before arrival in Melbourne. The first was a Cheese stuffed omelette with sausage, hashbrown, tomato and mushrooms in a creamy sauce, served with a bottle of water.

The second meal I ordered was a traditional Nasi Lemak, an authentic taste of Malaysia that started as a dish for farmers to regain energy for work in the fields. The AAX version features coconut-infused rice with onion sambal, chicken Rendang, hard-boiled egg, fried anchovies and peanuts.

There is also a full menu of snacks, sandwiches and drinks, including Pistachio Coconut Latte, Watermelon Coconut Milk and Pineapple Jasmine Iced Tea. For those looking for something stronger, there are Australian wines, alcoholic cocktails, beers, and spirits, including Timah Malaysian whiskey.

With a sparsely populated cabin, the Quiet Zone was the most tranquil low-cost carrier flight I have ever experienced, made even more enjoyable by the attentive, professional and unobtrusive cabin crew. They were frequently in the cabin and responded quickly to the call button, delivering excellent service with a warm Asian smile.

Photo: Michael Doran I Simple Flying

The flight arrived nearly 40 minutes early and the cabin crew gave priority to business and Quiet Zone passengers to leave the aircraft first. It was an unexpected but nice touch that summed up the experience, which was really that there is so much more to AirAsia than cheap tickets, be it the aircraft, service, people and attention to detail.

Overall, this seven-hour AirAsia X flight was a cut above the usual LCC experience, primarily due to the clean and fresh cabin, the Quiet Zone environment, the quality of the meals and the first-class service from the cabin crew. All of which comes with the lowest fares in the market and seamless connections to more than 130 destinations across the AirAsia network, with one-stop flights to Nairobi soon to make that even sweeter.