An open letter to Tony of humble Air Asia origin...

An interesting letter to Tony Fernandez from a pax...

Dear Tony (if I may, or Dear Datuk Seri Tony Fernandez)

I have been meaning to write to you. I know you love getting notes from your AirAsia customers. You have a blog, several websites, wiki page and even Facebook, all for people to get in touch with you. I decided against writing you a direct email because I think what I have to say is widely shared by other people as well. So if you do reply to me, I can share your reply.
Let me congratulate you on your appointment as F1 boss and a trustee of 1 Malaysia Foundation. Second, congratulations on your titles after such a short career in aviation — I mean less than five years ago you were “call me Tony” then you became Datuk and now Datuk Seri. At the rate you are going, I suspect you will be Tan Sri by the end of next year!

The reason I am writing is because I keep reading how well your airline is doing— it’s making tons of money and ordering a massive number of Airbus planes. You have gone international with AA X, insurance, hotels and goodness what else!

Yet somehow I think you have lost your human touch and are now solely interested in making money, just like the blood-sucking Malaysian elite you joined recently. Yet you keep telling us, in your public interviews anyway, that making money is not your main aim but providing a “service” to the rakyat! How can we, the poor rakyat, not remember that before you descended from the mountain, we had to pay “sky high” prices just to fly. As you say, now “everyone can fly”. So, a big Terima Kasih from me and 28 million other Malaysians!

What I am talking about is your reluctance to use the passenger-bridge in all airports in Malaysia . You put the blame on MAHB’s high charges. I’m sure since yours is a volume business, MAHB will be happy to offer you a special deal since you must be their second biggest customer after MAS. I cannot believe that with the millions you are making, you cannot afford to use the bridge. Or if you are really desperate, I am sure you can add 50 sen to every ticket sold to cover part of the costs.

I say this because I took a flight recently from LCCT to East Malaysia . When we arrived, it was raining heavily. Several mothers with children, and old people, were reluctant to leave the plane. But alas, your crew literally pushed them off since they only have 25 minutes to fly out again. I felt so sorry for one of the old aunties who had to carry two bags (she was trying to save RM10 because of your no-free luggage policy) and there was no one from Air Asia to help her with an umbrella. One mummy with children fared even worse. She was carrying an infant and could not hold the umbrella properly. I asked one of the flight stewardesses to help her but she gave me a dirty look. I guess nobody wanted to be caught in a mini-typhoon. I tried my best my help her but she got soaked because the umbrella was designed for one person only.

I can go on and on, and described the scene at the staircase since we all had to walk up to the “arrival hall”. Let’s just say it was a heart-breaking scene. The old people had to climb up the stairs totally soaked, and I will not be surprised if they came down with pneumonia. One of the children slipped because the staircase was wet.

So, Tony, can you please show us your heart? Now that you travel first or business class, and no longer a member of the working class, can you just do this little favour for the rest of us? I am sure it can be counted as CSR and win you another award

Yours sincerely
James Chin

My comment: Truth be told, just a few days ago, my son got back from London Stansted Airport on Air Asia, arriving KL LCCT punctually and it took less than 20 minutes to check out. It was the first time he was able to really take advantage of the cheap one-way ticket on airfare, saving at least GBP 200! But then again, as the letter suggests, cheap airline seems unfriendly to those who are not physically fit.
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