WITHIN the last week, Air Asia has been in the news for a couple of reasons.
First, Air Asia in India made a press release announcing it had achieved a 134 percent growth in passenger traffic in the October-December quarter of 2015. This was an announcement Air Asia Group CEO Tony Fernandes was very proud of, also announcing that a dozen new aircraft would be operating in India within a very short time.
This announcement is symbolic of how diversified, powerful, and interlocked the company is with some of the top entrepreneurs and rising corporate identities within the region. These include Fersindo Nusaperkasa in Indonesia, Antonio Cojuangco, Michael Romero, and Marianne Hontiveros in the Philippines, All Nippon Airways in Japan, Tata in India, and Virgin in Air Asia X.
Secondly, Air Asia flight D7206 from Kuala Lumpur to Coolangatta on Feb. 15 made two emergency medical landings at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar, Bali, where the passengers ended up stranded there for the next 36 hours due to a number of procedural and operational issues.
Stories emerged from some of the passengers about the lack of care they were given, having to pay US$57 dollars for their own Indonesian visa (later reimbursed), and provided with no food and water for many hours after landing. More alarmingly, the pilot and crew of the aircraft allowed Indonesian authorities to take into custody one Iraqi passport holder without any protest, as Iraqi citizens were not eligible for a visa on arrival. After a failure to get clearance for take-off due to 9 passengers staying on in Bali or making their own way home, the flight was further grounded until 2.30pm the next afternoon where the entire planeload of passengers and crew staked out in the terminal under harsh conditions.
07/03/16 Murray Hunter/Asian Correspondent
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First, Air Asia in India made a press release announcing it had achieved a 134 percent growth in passenger traffic in the October-December quarter of 2015. This was an announcement Air Asia Group CEO Tony Fernandes was very proud of, also announcing that a dozen new aircraft would be operating in India within a very short time.
This announcement is symbolic of how diversified, powerful, and interlocked the company is with some of the top entrepreneurs and rising corporate identities within the region. These include Fersindo Nusaperkasa in Indonesia, Antonio Cojuangco, Michael Romero, and Marianne Hontiveros in the Philippines, All Nippon Airways in Japan, Tata in India, and Virgin in Air Asia X.
Secondly, Air Asia flight D7206 from Kuala Lumpur to Coolangatta on Feb. 15 made two emergency medical landings at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar, Bali, where the passengers ended up stranded there for the next 36 hours due to a number of procedural and operational issues.
Stories emerged from some of the passengers about the lack of care they were given, having to pay US$57 dollars for their own Indonesian visa (later reimbursed), and provided with no food and water for many hours after landing. More alarmingly, the pilot and crew of the aircraft allowed Indonesian authorities to take into custody one Iraqi passport holder without any protest, as Iraqi citizens were not eligible for a visa on arrival. After a failure to get clearance for take-off due to 9 passengers staying on in Bali or making their own way home, the flight was further grounded until 2.30pm the next afternoon where the entire planeload of passengers and crew staked out in the terminal under harsh conditions.
07/03/16 Murray Hunter/Asian Correspondent
