Air France Flight 447, an Airbus A330-203 which crashed in the mid-Atlantic in June 2009 killing 228 people, was flying through similar conditions.
Indonesia's Transport Minister, Ignasius Jonan, said that the flight had climbed too fast before stalling.
A report by the Indonesian weather agency said bad weather was the "biggest factor" in the crash.
AirAsia did not have permission to fly the Surabaya to Singapore route on the day of the accident. The airliner, however, was licensed to fly on four other days of the week.
The Indonesian authorities have suspended the company's flights on this route pending an investigation.