Filepic: The Mole

KUALA LUMPUR: As the saying goes, one man’s tragedy is another man’s opportunity.

With the ‘bad luck’ that seems to have befallen AirAsia’s public relations of late, its rival Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has been seen stepping up to the plate.

AirAsia’s PR nightmare started after AirAsia X CEO, Azran Osman-Rani voiced his personal opinion on Utusan Malaysia via his Twitter account, calling the Malay daily racist for publishing its much-talked about post-13th general election (GE13) headline “Apa Lagi Cina Mahu?”

Azran commented that AirAsia X will cease advertising with Utusan Malaysia because it refuses to be associated with such a racist stand.

That started the nightmare that became a rival company’s goldmine.

While AirAsia was still trying to regain footing from Azran’s remarks, Utusan Malaysia ran a story of a mother and her child who were denied entry into an AirAsia flight from Vietnam back to Kuala Lumpur.

The child was feverish as she was recovering from chicken pox and deemed not fit to travel.

MAS stepped up, took the child to a local paediatrician and mother and child were given the all-clear by the doctor. They flew home aboard a Malaysia Airlines aircraft.

If MAS and AirAsia were telco companies, the former would have jumped at the opportunity this provided to attack its opponent via what is called a ‘front-stabbing’ advertising method.

However, being in an industry that has been around longer than telcos, the players in the aviation world have always adopted a gentleman’s approach. The industry is more mature and so are its players to a certain extent.

A Malaysian aviation industry observer who only wanted to be known as Ahmad, said MAS does not appear to be taking too much advantage of the situation, instead opting to play it cool.

“What they have done in the case of the mother and baby in Vietnam, and the dead body in Jogjakarta, is simply what they have been doing all this while. From my observation, MAS has always gone the extra mile when it comes to passengers. So in this case, they were just helping those people out,” he said.

Referring to the case of the Malaysian tourist who died in Jogjakarta, the incident happened just as Malaysians were still talking about the mother and baby in Vietnam. The tourist, an AirAsia passenger, had a heart attack while in Jogjakarta but the airline refused to fly the body back home as the agent in Jogjakarta informed the family that they ‘did not provide such services’.

The body was then flown to Jakarta and then back home to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) onboard a Malaysia Airlines flight.

It was another blow to AirAsia’s already disastrous PR mess.

“What this is, is MAS’ Malaysian Hospitality tagline being put to the test,” the observer said.

“And their staff came true, proving that Malaysian Hospitality is not just branding tagline, but rather something that they inculcate amongst their staff and they have proven themselves time and again,” he added.

While MAS has not entirely shied away from taking slight advantage of what has happened, what they have done is not seen as being too opportunistic.

Just after the Vietnam incident, MAS came out with a special Vietnam package and the observer who spoke toMalaysian Digest last night said: “This was very light-hearted and not hard-hitting in anyway. In fact, what they have done is just continue to associate MAS with Vietnam so that people will remember the two together.”

When asked how AirAsia is going to comeback from this mess, the observer said they will probably ride out the storm and come back with a big campaign of sorts that will take the focus away from what has happened and give new light on the AirAsia brand.

“Tony loves the limelight,” the observer said, referring to the group CEO of AirAsia, Tan Sri Tony Fernandes.

“AirAsia is a brand that has always resorted to big, flashy campaigns. Perhaps we will see them come up with a major school holiday package,” he said.

“But what they should do, is simply apologise,” he opined.

While MAS stepped in and fulfilled what AirAsia couldn’t, the former lived up to its ‘Malaysian Hospitality’ tagline and proved to the people that they are human and will help out whenever they can. But AirAsia has only issued a statement saying that what they did was in line with the standard operating procedure and that they did not do anything wrong.

A simpler way to get out from this nightmare is for AirAsia to issue a heartfelt apology and own up to their mistakes.

Netizens who have jumped on the bandwagon in criticizing AirAsia have been calling for a boycott of the company. However, the observer said business-wise, AirAsia will not lose out much.

“It won’t affect them in a big way, the only thing affected here is their image, but those who frequent AirAsia will still fly with them.

“Our market is small, we are not in the United States. So AirAsia does not have to worry about losing passengers,” the observer said.

Meanwhile, it is also important to note that while AirAsia has always boasted on ‘Now Everyone Can Fly’, time to time checks on ticket prices have proven that there are occassions where MAS tickets are cheaper.

In the instance of this new Vietnam package, or a normal return flight to and from Ho Chi Minh City, MAS with its RM880 package, appears to be the cheaper option for a quick getaway to Vietnam.

In any case, MAS is subtly banking in on the opportunity AirAsia has provided for them. While they appear to not want to jump at it and be flashy the way Tony would, what they are doing right now works well with their long-time approach of Malaysian hospitality.

While AirAsia may be the one who says ‘Now Everyone Can Fly’, of late it seems like MAS has been helping them fulfill their rather extravagant claim.

~ mD