PARIS, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- AirAsia X, the long-haul affiliate of Asia's largest low-cost airline, has ordered 55 A330neo aircraft from France-based Airbus, Airbus said on Monday.

"It's the largest single order to date for the bestselling A330 Family and reaffirms AirAsia X's position as the biggest A330 airline customer worldwide, having now ordered a total of 91 aircraft," Airbus said in a statement.

AirAsia announced its decision to buy an additional five planes to "consolidate its growth rate in 2015-2017," following an order of 50 jets during the Farnborough Air Show in July 2014.

Deliveries of the newly-ordered aircraft will begin in 2018, according to the statement.

The new aircraft will be powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 7000 engines.