Asia's largest budget carrier AirAsia on Wednesday said it may order another 60 A320 Airbus aircraft bringing the total to 160 planes to meet a surge in passenger traffic.

"This is my gut feeling. We may firm an order next year for 30 A320 with an option for another 30 planes," the airline's group chief executive Tony Fernandes told AFP.

Fernandes said the AirAsia board has not yet discussed the new order but added AirAsia was extremely happy with the performance of the A320 aircraft.

"It has far exceeded our expectation," he added.

The airline has taken delivery of 13 A320s to date.

Fernandes also said AirAsia would ask Airbus to accelerate delivery of planes to 24 a year from 17 presently, to meet growth and route expansion.

Fernandes last week said he expected AirAsia to carry 16 million passengers in the financial year ending next June, up from 9.31 million a year ago.

AirAsia was launched as a budget carrier in December 2001 with two aircraft.

It now offers more than 100 domestic and international flights to Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines.