AirAsia may order 50 more Airbus jets: CEO

Asia's largest budget carrier, AirAsia , may order an additional 50 Airbus A320 jets on top of its existing record order for 475 of the Airbus model, Chief Executive Tony Fernandes said on Friday.

The additional aircraft would be mainly for the market in India, where it expects its new affiliate, AirAsia India, to launch in the fourth quarter.

"We've bought a lot of planes but we're still short, we're still leasing planes at the moment, so I was right buying these planes, and we may have to put in another order...fifty or something like that," Fernandes told Reuters in an interview.

Initial aircraft for AirAsia India would come from the airline's existing order, the CEO said, speaking ahead of Sunday's Monaco Formula One grand prix.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin; Additional reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by James Regan)