Much has been said in the press since the unwinding of the share swap was announced last Wednesday, some of it good, some bad.
I’d like to take this opportunity to say it’s been a great eight months for me working with Malaysia Airlines (MAS). Whatever your feelings about me, it’s better to use this collaboration to stay as friends.
This isn’t to say the people there didn’t treat us well. On the contrary, I found the MAS staff to be very supportive of our efforts — they shared our vision for the company.
This includes the cabin crew who took excellent care of me on a recent flight from Narita to Kuala Lumpur.
I’ve always thought that cabin crew are the glue that holds together the many elements which make up a wonderful flying experience. The boys and girls of MH89 showed why they’re rightly considered the heart and soul of MAS.
So hats off to Mazlan Mokty, Johan Jafni Khoo Abdullah, Zainuri Ahmad, Normala Mohamed Talib, Mohamad Abdul Halim Ramli, Prdeep Singh Beant Singh, Mohd Firdaus Md Azmeir, Suriati Md Osman, Ikuko Tanaka, Kaori Abe and Nana Iida.
MAS has amazing staff. I’d like to point out that about half our staff, from ramp boys to regional heads, were originally from MAS. This proves the flag carrier can succeed with the right direction and management.
I also wish to thank everyone for their kind e-mails and messages. Your support is what keeps us doing what we do best — making sure everyone can fly.
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It is just amazing that after just half a day of initiating the “Say NO to Airport Tax Increase” campaign, we’ve received an overwhelming rate of support and backing to the Campaign by people from all walks of life. This instant consensus by people far and near only goes to show AirAsia’s stand in this matter is commendable and on the right direction.
Apart from emails, supports and backings flew in through various modes of communication such as facebook and twitter, which came through in thousands. There’s also an online petition created at http://www.change.org/petitions/malaysia-airports-holding-berhad-reverse-the-enforced-increment-of-passenger-service-charge-airport-tax
Firstly, I need you to know that AirAsia doesn’t derive profit from airport tax collected because the entire amount goes to Malaysia Airports Holding Berhad (MAHB) being the airport operator. Nevertheless, AirAsia took on the lead role in launching this Campaign on the belief that the increased rate will only detriment the travel industry of Malaysia, thereby making it less and less competitive to our neighbor country down south. Additionally, I truly believe MAHB has absolutely NO justification to implement such increase.
I have over and over again stressed on the sorry state of LCCT and that it is not up to par with other low cost airports around the region. This sentiment has been echoed on each email I received today, which is either sent directly to me or MAHB with me in copy or blind copy. Here I would like to share with you an email from Colin where issues raised by him are very very real and I’m sure they have crossed your mind each time you visit the LCCT or even KLIA for that matter.
Subject:
A 300,000 miler complaints (WAS: Fwd: Say NO to AIRPORT TAX INCREASE)
From:
“Colin Charles” 
I may be exasperated by all this but I would definitely not let it go without a good fight. So, I would sincerely recommend MAHB to start doing some soul searching and ensure the amount of airport tax imposed is worthy of the facilities provided. To all of you out there who feel you have been short changed, come support and back us by signing the petition (here). AirAsia is committed to bring you affordable air travel as per the tagline “Now Everyone Can Fly”!
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I received this letter late last week and I thought I’d share it with you. This just goes to show that we’ve come a long way since we first met because when we first met in 2007 it wasn’t in the best of terms and now just a couple of years down, here we are working together to better educate ourselves on the needs of everyone who would fly.
It is amazing and blows me away to have these disabled friends of ours, understanding where we are as a LCC and their unrelenting commitment to make the LCC work for disabled guests and everyone in general, with what we have and mind you which is with limited resources and the airport layout. That itself is humbling indeed and from the bottom of our hearts we thank you BEAT!
Barrier-free Environment and Accessible Transport (BEAT),
c/o No 4, Lorong 1A/71 J,
Jalan Carey, 46000 Petaling Jaya.
15 November 2011
AirAsia Berhad,
LCC Terminal, Jalan KLIA S3,
Southern Support, Zone KLIA,
64000 Sepang, Selangor Darul Ehsan.
Attention : Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, Group CEO AirAsia Berhad,
Mr. Bo Lingam, Head of Operations and Planning, AirAsia Berhad.
Dear Tan Sri Tony and Bo,
We, at BEAT, feel very honoured to be given the opportunity to be involved and to support AirAsia in providing training for your staff. Thank you, AirAsia for giving BEAT the full trust and confidence to develop the cross disability training syllabus and modules and to conduct the training.
We are also thankful to be given the opportunity by AirAsia to introduce Disability Equality Training (“DET”) on top of the Disability Related Service Training (“DRST”). DET gives us a correct understanding of disability issues from the perspective of equality and justice. With DET, DRST will be properly understood, better appreciated and more effective.
BEAT wants to give maximum credit to Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, group CEO of AirAsia, for it was Tan Sri Tony who recognised that the training would be best conducted by and with the involvement of disabled people themselves - the end users of the service. It was Tan Sri Tony who invited BEAT to be involved in the training.
As a gesture of his commitment, Tan Sri presented BEAT the AirAsia cap he was wearing on when he met us on 20th July,2007, with his hand written wordings “To all my BEAT friends”, “You have my 100% commitment", and “Dare to dream”. These words which came directly from Tan Sri himself had given us great motivation to give all our best to support AirAsia in the effort to further improve the service to include disabled passengers. Knowingly or unknowingly, Tan Sri Tony has helped put into practice our very famous slogan “Nothing about us without us”. Thank you, again, Tan Sri !
As part of our mission is to work towards a better and accessible environment and an inclusive society including improved services, we see it as part of our responsibility to offer and share our knowledge, experience and expertise because we know best our own needs and how we want to be served. BEAT is fully committed and proud to be working in partnership with AirAsia in implementing change for better and improved service. We know that the good service will ultimately benefit us and the community at large.
May we also take this opportunity to put on record our special thanks and deepest appreciation to Mr. Bo Lingam, Head of Operations and Planning, who was entrusted by Tan Sri, to work with us for the past 3 ½ years. To mention a few, we found Bo to be friendly, easy going, trusting, understanding, accepting, accommodating, fair, reasonable, open minded, and fun to work with and to be with. In short, we have “fallen in love” with him More importantly, Bo has been able to work with us not just as a working partner but as a friend.
Over the few years of working together, Bo has been able to better understand our struggle and appreciate us for who we are. On most occasions, Bo would make his time available even after office hours to accommodate our timing as many of us work during day time. He would let us decide on the venue of meeting most accessible to us. At times, when we had more issues to work at, the meetings would be dragged till late nights and Bo would stay put throughout every meeting session. There were also occasions when Bo sacrificed his Saturday mornings to meet us. Thank you, Bo for your full support and commitment!
Through Bo and his team, we have got many changes implemented. Among them - the terms and conditions which were discriminatory and unfair towards disabled passengers have been removed. Disabled people who travel unaccompanied are now able to travel on AirAsia. Online bookings are now made possible. Disabled passengers are no more required to sign Indemnity Forms. RM 12 is no more charged for usage of each wheelchair. Special assistance is given upon request without charge. Aisle chair made available when a disabled passenger is on board. Passenger boarding lift made available at LCCT upon request. Special Assistance Service Counter established at LCCT. Developed DET&DRST cross disability training syllabus and modules and mainstreaming them as part of the overall syllabus conducted at AirAsia Academy. Syabas, Bo and Team!
In the face of alternative training offers by local and international groups, Bo recognized the effort, commitment and past record of BEAT and stood by us. Bo maintained that BEAT would continue with the training in Malaysia and also help to extend the training to Thailand and Indonesia. Hence, Bo was in fact instrumental in realising the recently concluded DET&DRST Training of Trainers involving participants from Thailand and Indonesia. Thank you, Bo!
Now that Bo has “left us” for greater tasks else where in AirAsia, we sincerely wish him the best in all his undertakings. We assure you, Bo, that we will give our full support to Zaman and team as we continue the good work you have laid down.
To Bo, we thank you for all that you have been to us. Please do drop by and visit us as and when your time permits. We know that we are not only going to miss you but we will miss you a whole lot!
Warm regards,
Christine & Team,
B.E.A.T. Malaysia.
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Rural Air Services
| Categories: Others |
Given that the issue of Rural Air Services has been raised again recently in the public, we wish to provide the following clarification:
• Rural Air Services has been an on-going service provided by the Government of Malaysia for the benefit of providing transportation services to the rural communities in East Malaysia. The Government contracts the provision of these services initially to Malaysia Airlines, and then subsequently to Fly Asian Xpress from August 2006 to September 2007, and now to MASWings.
• All three operators receive subsidies from the Government to cover the costs of operations. All the subsidies only cover the cost of operations and no financial benefits are accrued to the main airline operations. Subsidy payments are fully audited by the Auditor-General’s Office, who has confirmed that there were no irregularities in the amounts paid to Fly Asian Xpress.
• During the period when Fly Asian Xpress (FAX) operated the service, it earned a revenue of RM164 million, against operating costs of RM343 million, for a loss of RM179 million. A further RM70 million was incurred in capital expenditure, for a total amount of RM249 million, which was funded by a subsidy from the Malaysian Government.
• When RAS was operated by the other carriers, it also similarly generated significant operating losses which were also fully subsidised by the Malaysian Government. There were no differences in arrangements compared to Fly Asian Xpress.
• A number of factors contributed to the higher subsidy amounts during the FAX tenure:
– RM48 million was paid to MAS Engineering (FAX was charged commercial rates instead of at cost). FAX had to take over the aircraft in August 2006 from MAS on an “as is” basis, without the benefit of historical aircraft maintenance records which were withheld by MAS. Abnormally high number of overhauls and repairs were required, and with MAS as the only licensed engineering provider, no supplier competition was available to extract better rates.
i. Actual overhaul costs were much higher than initial budget prepared without historical MAS records
ii. High aircraft downtime resulted in cancelled flights and less revenue earned versus budget
iii. Aircraft downtime also led to poor customer reliability reputation.
• 4 out of 7 Fokker 50 aircraft required ‘C’ checks (once every 20 months)
• 10 out of 14 Fokker 50 engines overhauled (once every 3 years) and 10 Fokker 50 propellers
• 7 out of 14 Twin Otter engines overhauled (once every 3 years) and 3 Twin Otter propellers
• 6 planes requiring major stabilizer modifications (requiring 9-day downtime)
MASWings benefited from the amount spent by FAX because 80% of the amount spent would not have to be incurred in the 12 months after MASWings took over.
– RM72 million was paid to a third party provider for additional maintenance services not done by MAS because MAS were slow to respond to requests and ultimately wanted to charge higher rates. FAX had not built up its own maintenance capability in the first year.
– MAS also priced other services to FAX using commercial rates with margin mark-ups, compared to a cost-recovery basis when it was the RAS operator previously:
i. Ground handling and other service charges by MAS: RM25 million
ii. Interest charged on loan spares from MAS: RM16 million
(MAS had critical spares and only lent it to FAX with interest, and subsequently sold them to FAX at list price)
iii. Write-down on spares purchased: RM9 million
(At the end of operations, despite tender to 11 parties, no interest to buy back FAX spares except MAS, who only offered RM200k, since planes are not commonly used elsewhere)
iv. Fees paid to MAS for pilot secondments from Aug-06 to Mar-07:RM9 million
– Finally, other contributing factor in the difference in subsidy claims is the higher global fuel price versus prior years under MAS: RM10 million
• Fly Asian Xpress was the sole operator of the Rural Air Services, and not AirAsia Berhad. AirAsia Berhad did not receive any financial benefit arising from the RAS operations.
Although the shareholders of FAX were similar to AirAsia Berhad, they ended up losing almost RM5 million of shareholder capital, because the wind-up costs of FAX, including retrenchment payments, were not covered by the Government subsidy.
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Recently, some good friends of mine and fans of AirAsia have alerted me on the resurfacing of the email with subject title “AirAsia Compromise on Safety and Regulations”. This email has been on circulation for sometime despite an article on our Travel 360 magazine and abundance of article in the web on 25 minutes turn-around time.
Interestingly, a representative from the Ministry of Transport (MOT) also raised a reply upon receipt of the said email of which I’m in copy. I would like to share the reply here with all of you:
“Dear Friend,
All Malaysian airlines including AirAsia are subjected to the safety regulations/standards set by the Department of Civil Aviation, Malaysia. In fact these standards are higher than that set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). ICAO is made up 190 countries and we are one of them. All planes are also subjected to scheduled checks by the DCA to ascertain whether they are airworthy, if they are not, than I am afraid to say that they will not be allowed to fly.
The ICAO also does annual checks on safety standards of all the airlines of its member countries including Malaysia. Only recently, the ICAO did their safety audit on Malaysia and the results were thumbs -up.
Countries like UK and Australia will not accept Airasia if it is not up to the safety standards. UK has ban many airlines such from Indonesia and the Philippines. Australia has recently banned Tiger Airways from Singapore (imagine Singapore, the so call the safety standards bearers). Qantas, Australia has had the same safety problems as Tiger etc.
And again, comparing a LCC with a Full Service Carrier is not a fair comparison at all. And I am not sure how you come to the conclusion that Lufthansa is a reputable airline!
There are many types of air travel which we can choose, if we are not satisfied with one.
Whenever you are free, please make an appointment with me so that I could bring you to DCA and show you the safety standards of our airlines.
“Always the other side of the grass is greener”
Tks
XXXXXXXXX
Undersecretary of Aviation
Ministry of Transport, Malaysia
Tel: XXXXXX”
In addition to the above, I also wish to highlight the fact that before AirAsia is permitted to fly to or operate in a particular country; its Aviation Authority (equivalent to Department of Civil Aviation in Malaysia) would scrutinize our adherence to safety regulations and standards by benchmarking it against our Maintenance Program (which includes the 25 minutes turn-around check). Unless and until the Maintenance Program received approval, we won’t get clearance to get in to the respective countries.
Back in Malaysia, our renewal of Air Operator Certificate, which is on annual basis, would also be in jeopardy if safety standards are not met.
Final food for thought: How would AirAsia compromise on safety when it has the youngest fleet in the region and is the single biggest purchaser of Airbus A320 planes in the world?
So now you decide if this is truth or myth?
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Since the 2008 general election, one particular MP has been obsessed with us and has been obsessed with AirAsia.
He claimed we would go bust so we shouldn’t collect money up front and that the government would have to bail us out; he goes on and on about us owing Malaysian Airpots RM 120 million two years ago. The list is endless.
Now he’s attacking us on the MAS-AirAsia shareholder share swap.
I wonder what his constituents think of his antics. Many of them use AirAsia thanks to our affordable fares; some of them even work for AirAsia. Rather than support us, this MP seems to want us to go bust and make 9,000 people jobless. STRANGE for an elected Wakil Rakyat. And his dislike of me personally is just immense. After all I have done for this country.
It’s a free world and he can feel what he wants but as an elected representative, he should come visit us at AirAsia and find out for himself. I’ll be more than happy to meet with him. In fact, I’ve invited him many, many times. Good leaders should listen to all sides and get the facts instead of just venting.
Come take a look at the LCCT . See if we should be paying half of the charges levied at the Main Terminal of KLIA. Are the services and facilities provided at LCCT equivalent to half of those at the Main terminal? I dare say they are only 30 percent.
This MP claims to be a “man of the people.” Yet he was happy for Malaysian Airports to raise airport charges. Which would have meant that his constituents would have to pay more for air travel. Like I said earlier, STRANGE.
So, YB for Wangsa Maju, here’s another invitation: Come and see me, come and see what an amazing job the staff of AirAsia have done and how they’ve helped 130 million people fly to places and at fares they never believed they could do before.
Come visit us, YB and to all YB too, ask whatever you would like and let’s find a way for Malaysia to win.
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Recently, there has been a lot of talk about unions. AirAsia has 9,000 staff and no unions. Why? Because we look after our staff. You only need unions if management doesn’t take care of the staff.
AirAsia staff are paid well, they get an annual bonus and are provided with opportunities for career advancement. The company does well, and so do they.
I’m not sure what some unions do. Are unions democratic, do they represent all the staff? Some union leaders have been in office for years. Are they benefitting themselves or the staff?
Yes, worker’s rights are important but I still feel dialogue is the best way forward. We should all win together.
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What a dream come true. Was a poor result on Sunday but that does not deter me . I love it.
When you lose a class player like Traore and then his back up Connoley, it’s going to hurt. Then you bring Orr out and move Luke Young to the left side. And at warm up,Yiu – the third choice centre back pulls a hamstring. Total disruption.
Anyway we get Gabiddon, and Traore back for Blackburn. Let’s see.
Think we have a good squad, though it needs to be strengthened in the January transfer window. But this is a long road; we should be attacking more at home, maybe play with two strikers. it’s good to have Mackie back.
But I’m thrilled. This year is about avoiding relegation, sorting out our future home, building a good squad, build new training facilities and a new academy and growing new commercial opportunities.
I’m loving it! Going to be some tough weeks ahead but I love it when my back is against the wall. See you at Loftus Road Oct. 15.
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A letter from Andrew
| Categories: Brands, Marketing, Technology, Customers, Others |
I have been travelling quite a fair bit lately and once in a while I receive letters like this and it really makes it worth while.
Thank you Andrew Ciseau of Brisbane, Australia. I’d also like to hear from you out there and help us make it better for you.
Good afternoon Tony,
My name is Andrew Ciseau from Brisbane, Australia, and I am writing to you to provide some feedback on my recent trip on AirAsia and AirAsia X.
It has been just over 3 years since I last travelled multiple legs on AirAsia, and I must say I am impressed with how things have changed.
The biggest thing I think you have achieved is consistency of product and service. My flights from Gold Coast, KL, Langkawi, Penang, Singapore and back home again were all of a high standard of customer service, as well as travel experience. Everything from the plane décor and food were consistent, which for a traveller is very comforting when visiting new places. This is in stark contrast to my last AirAsia experience which started with the old IT system which was anything but user friendly, and didn’t get much better after that. However it is good to see just how your product can shine once you have all of the ‘backbone’ infrastructure in place and settled down.
One thing I would suggest is that you start marketing yourself in Australia as a Low Cost, but high quality service airline. The LCC offerings in Australia, have had customer service levels driven to the lowest common denominator, which in my opinion has tainted the LCC market here. Your product is not in the same league as these LCC carriers, so you really do need to get the message out just how far your product has come. After my experience, I would not hesitate to travel anywhere with your carrier given the outstanding value it represents when compared to a full service legacy carrier, and the service offering was more than adequate. People need to know why this is.
To be fair, there is still room for improvement in some quarters. Like all airlines and airports, Terminal information screens are vital, particularly for visitors from overseas. I noticed many of these boards were slow to update, and in some cases passengers lined up at gates for boarding, when the aircraft was in fact delayed, but no announcements made, or screens updated. These are the little things which should be getting done right. Technology means that as soon as the arriving aircraft departs, electronic messaging means someone, somewhere knows how late or early it will be in most cases, it doesn’t take much to publish this information on displays.
Also, on the whole I am not a fan of the KLIA LCC terminal. On your first visit you are simply overwhelmed by the size of the place, the different location of check-in areas, and odd signage and counter numbers. I don’t have any particular suggestions for improvements, however it just seems to be harder than it needs to be.
On the whole I am very excited about the future of your airlines, and the competition and services you provide to Australia, and beyond. I am not afraid to tell people why this is.
I thank you for your time.
Regards,
Andrew Ciseau
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WOW, 3 times in a row! Thank you, thank you and thank you!
I am deeply humbled by this show of support that you, our guests, have given to us at AirAsia. Being voted World’s Best Low Cost Airline; not once or twice but thrice consecutively is just amazing. This recognition is very meaningful to all of us at AirAsia as it is an award bestowed following an independent global survey that was conducted by a respectable London-based aviation consultant - Skytrax. Over 19 million travelers worldwide took the survey and we came out top in this most prestigious and respected airline award survey, which measures airlines’ product and service standards. This goes to prove our constant effort to improve and innovate are working.
I believe by pouring your heart and soul into your dreams, you can undoubtedly achieve it and it is just a matter of time. However, to be the best and stay on as the Best takes passion and the spirit of never give up!
3 times a charm!
Whilst I am over the moon on this, I would not forget the blood, sweat and tears of everyone at AirAsia. So, I am going to attribute this award to the AirAsia Allstars who are and have been the pillar of our success all throughout. I can still recall vividly how AirAsia started with just mere 250 employees in 2001 and we have now grown with strength of over 8000 employees across the ASEAN region. Also, the long and winding road of each of the battle we fought tirelessly. What could be a better gift then this award as we celebrate our tenth year anniversary in a few months’ time. A big pat on the back of all the AirAsia Allstars who made this dream come true. You guys really and absolutely deserve this award. A big and fun celebration will ensue and after that we will work even harder to lift AirAsia to the next level and into the next decade.
Din and our girls with the award
As for you, our guest, we will strive to be more customer friendly and orientated, make available great and unbeatable products and services that span over a much bigger network of connectivity like there has never been before. We are indeed very proud and grateful to have been chosen as the People’s Champion, People’s Airline once again. I would just leave you now with a BIG thank you for the wonderful support expressed. There’s never an end to dream, as if it does life would be a shame. Therefore, the next one to realize could be elusive but not entirely impossible; Let’s see if we can get this next year - Skytrax World’s Best Airline Cabin Staff Award – AirAsia! After all, YOU should Dream the Impossible! Don’t Take No for An Answer! Believe the Unbelievable!
Good day folks, sit tight, stay tune and be surprised by us!
Blood.Sweat.Tears
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