LANGKAWI: Budget airline AirAsia will fly to India and more destinations in China from May.

It is expected to launch its service to Quangzhou, Hainan, Guilin and Hangzhou in China, and Tirchur in southern India.

AirAsia chief executive officer Datuk Tony Fernandez told The Star the daily flights would will be direct from Kuala Lumpur.

"We will increase the frequency, depending on the popularity and demand for the routes," he said.

"We are also looking at venturing with Vietnam and Philippines partners to service their domestic routes as well as flying to and from Kuala Lumpur."

Fernandez said AirAsia was targeting to carry some 80 million passengers in Asia by 2013.

Yesterday it signed a contract with Airbus at the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace (Lima) exhibition to buy another 25 A320 aircraft for its fleet. The AirAsia group, which consists of AirAsia Malaysia, AirAsia Thai and AirAsia Indonesia, has already ordered a total of 175 A320s.

Currently, AirAsia has 31 A320s to ply the domestic and regional routes. The airline has a combined fleet of 64 aircraft.

Fernandez said the new order would replace the entire Thai AirAsia and Indonesia AirAsia fleet of Boeing 737s by 2008.

"The purchase is important to AirAsia in view of its aggressive route expansion plan in tandem with an expectation of the traffic growth over the next decade."

AirAsia X also signed a deal with the Thales Group to supply avionic components, satellite communications system and in-flight system for its new fleet of 15 Airbus 330-300s, due for delivery at the end of next year.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy witnessed the signing ceremony.