Ministry tracking down 106 on AirAsia flight

18 May 2009

Patients being tested for influenza A waiting for treatment at Kuala Lumpur Hospital.

PUTRAJAYA: The Health Ministry is tracking down 101 passengers and five crew members of AirAsia AK5358 flight to Penang on May 13, the same flight taken by a woman who has been infected with influenza A (H1N1).

The woman had taken the flight from the Low-Cost Carrier Terminal on arrival from Newark, New Jersey, on Malaysia Airlines flight MH091 at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Health deputy director-general Datuk Dr Ramlee Rahmat said all passengers on board had been identified and efforts were being made to trace and quarantine them. They and their families would have to undergo the standard seven-day quarantine and the ministry would also trace the people they had been in contact with. It is not known if the woman had taken the shuttle bus from the KLIA to the LCCT. However, she was picked up by her family at the Penang Airport. The woman was the second confirmed case of the influenza after her 21-year-old male friend was declared Malaysia's first case. The man was isolated at the Sungai Buloh Hospital at 6.45pm on Thursday, a day after he arrived at KLIA and was picked up by his family. As he was down with fever, his movements had been restricted to his home since his arrival. Both families are in quarantine at home. At present, the two patients are reportedly fine, although the man still has fever. "They will be discharged after they are declared fit and have completed their quarantine," Dr Ramlee said at a press conference. He said a possibly wider spread of the virus from the duo could not be ruled out. Those who believed they had been exposed to the virus and had symptoms should go to the nearest health centre and not self-medicate, he said.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH091 landed at the KLIA at 7.15am on Wednesday. The virus has a two-to-three-day incubation period during which symptoms linked to the disease would not be visible. Dr Ramlee also announced that until yesterday morning, 102 notifications were made to the ministry's Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre, including those from the MH091 flight. All, except the two confirmed cases, were declared free from the virus. Of the 119 passengers on the flight whose last stop was Kuala Lumpur, 95 people, including 15 foreigners, had been put under home quarantine, while 24 people, including 23 foreigners, were still being traced.
Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd senior general manager (operations) Datuk Azmi Murad said officers stationed at the KLIA, including Immigration and Customs officials, would be monitored for any symptoms of the flu. Foreign Minister Datuk Anifah Aman said his ministry would consult the Health Ministry for advice and guidelines on the safety measures that Malaysian students abroad should observe.

Air Asia flies to Sri Lanka from August

17 May 2009

He said that the lowest fare will be available at the airasia.com site while we will also appoint a local agent for people who want to enjoy a personalised service.

Already 55 million passengers have flown with us in 122 routes.. AirAsia pioneered low cost travelling in Asia and is also the first airline in the region to implement fully ticketless travel.

The airline was established in 1993 and started operations on November 18, 1996. It was originally founded by a government-owned conglomerate DRB-Hicom. On December 2, 2001, the heavily-indebted airline was purchased by former Time Warner executive Tony Fernandes’ company Tune Air Sdn Bhd.

On December 27, 2006, AirAsia’s CEO Tony Fernandes unveiled a five-year plan to further enhance its presence in Asia.In the plan, AirAsia will strengthen and enhance its route network by connecting all the existing cities in the region and expanding further into Indochina, Indonesia, Southern China (Kun Ming, Xiamen, Shenzen) and India. The airline will focus on developing its hubs in Bangkok and Jakarta through its sister companies, Thai AirAsia and Indonesia AirAsia. Late last year the airline abolished fuel surcharges and so claimed to be the ‘first airline in the world to abolish fuel surcharges’.

AirAsia passengers to be quarantined - UPDATED

17 May 2009

PUTRAJAYA: The Health Ministry hopes to contact all passengers on AirAsia flight AK 5358 leaving LCCT in Sepang for Penang at 11 a.m. on May 13 (Wednesday), for quarantine purposes after one of the passengers was identified as a confirmed Influenza A (H1N1) victim.

Deputy director-general of Health, Datuk Dr Ramlee Rahmat said the ministry had passed on information about the 101 passengers and five crew members on the flight, to the state health department for quarantine purposes.

"We would like to inform the passengers or flight crew on that flight to cooperate with the health authorities by contacting 03-8881 0200 or 03-8881 0300 for information and preventive measures," he told reporters here today (17 May).

Dr Ramlee said according to procedures, they must be quarantined at their houses for seven days and can only leave the house if they are cleared of any signs or symptoms.

He added that the ministry was also trying to track down 24 passengers, including a Malaysian, who had been on a Malaysia Airlines flight MH091 that arrived at KLIA from Newark, New Jersey (USA) at 7.15am on May 13, the same flight that the two confirmed influenza A victims had flown.

Dr Ramlee said from the 119 passengers who are in the country, three of them were admitted for observation, and two of them were confirmed positive for Influenza A (H1N1) while the others, except for the 24 yet to be identified, had been quarantined at their houses.

As for the two confirmed cases, Dr Ramlee said both were in stable condition and showed positive improvement.

The first victim being treated at the Sungai Buloh Hospital has fever but no cough or flu while the second one at the Penang Hospital does not have fever or any other symptoms.

Dr Ramlee said as of 8am today, the national Crisis Prevention and response Centre (CPRC) received 102 cases that had been referred to hospitals for observation and out of the total, two were positive for Influenza A (H1N1).

He said as of yesterday, 103,536 passengers on flights, were screened at various entry points in the country.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) had announced that 38 countries have been identified with the Influenza A (H1N1) virus outbreak with Turkey, India and Peru being the latest addition, he said.

Expanding Into a Downturn

15 May 2009

Tony Fernandes, chief executive of AirAsia. At a time when most carriers are sharply reducing capacity and cutting routes, AirAsia has been adding destinations.

SINGAPORE — As a teenager at boarding school in Britain, Tony Fernandes dreamed of having his own airline to fly between London and Kuala Lumpur, where his family lived.

This year, Mr. Fernandes, the 45-year-old chief executive of AirAsia, a low-cost regional competitor to Malaysian Airlines, has finally seen the fulfillment of that dream.

Mr. Fernandes, a hands-on chief, is known for regularly working alongside his staff as cabin crew or baggage handler. He established AirAsia X, its long-haul division, in 2007, but he had never actually taken a flight in the new airline until last March, when it initiated the Kuala Lumpur-London route.

“I really wanted my first flight on AirAsia X to be that one,” Mr. Fernandes said during a recent interview in Singapore. “I’d always made excuses, though no one realized why,” he said. “But picking up my daughter, who is going to same school as I did, and taking her home to K.L., that was really emotional. It’s the closest I’ve ever come to crying.”

At a time when most carriers are sharply reducing capacity and cutting routes, AirAsia has been adding new destinations for its short-haul operation as well as AirAsia X’s long-haul forays. In April, the company announced four new routes between the city-state of Singapore and destinations in Indonesia, which make it the biggest low-cost carrier out of Singapore.

Expanding in the middle of a downturn is not a strategy for the faint-hearted. But Mr. Fernandes said he had built his business by not being afraid of contrarian trends.

He and three partners bought the then-unprofitable AirAsia in 2001 for a nominal 1 ringgit, but with the assumption of its 40 million ringgit, or $11.3 million, of debt. The deal was concluded three days before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The following year, during the SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome pandemic, Mr. Fernandes decided to go against the perceived wisdom and tripled the company’s advertising budget. The goal: “to grab market share” while other airlines pulled back amid consumer fears about air travel.

Last year, Mr. Fernandes decided to unwind his fuel hedges, which had locked the company into buying oil at prices that Mr. Fernandes felt were higher than where the market was headed. While this led the company, which made a profit of 697.6 million ringgit in 2007, to post a loss of 471.7 million ringgit in 2008 — its first on his watch — the decision allowed the airline to get the full benefit of oil at $40 a barrel while other airlines were still locked in to higher prices.

“If we hadn’t done this, we’d be sitting on a fairly huge loss now,” he said.

Peter Harbison, executive chairman of the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation, an aviation analysis company, said Air Asia’s expansion plans in the current environment represented a risk, but one worth running “as long as the dark forces of protectionism don’t re-emerge and shut off access to new markets.”

“I think the AirAsia X model is a good one,” he added. Unlike the other long-haul low-cost airlines, like Oasis, Zoom, XL, which failed because they concentrated on one highly volatile market, “AirAsia X is able to synergize with the short-haul AirAsia network, which works very well,” Mr. Harbison said. “Whether it can weather the price cutting that is now going on is another question.”

So far this year, AirAsia has enjoyed a “fantastic” first quarter, while early booking for AirAsia X is strong, Mr. Fernandes said.

“We’re still getting a sense that people are willing to fly if the price is right,” he said. “I think we’re in a good position because as the market drops, a lot of the incumbents are cutting capacity and we’re soaking up a bit of that.”

Mr. Fernandes remains ambitious, hoping to raise the number of passengers for AirAsia to 60 million by 2013 from an anticipated 24 million this year, and for AirAsia X to about 10 million in the same period from just under a million this year.

Having achieved some of his dreams, Mr. Fernandes said he still had others to fulfill, including owning a sports team. “Football or Formula 1,” he said. “Football would be better because I’m not a mechanical type of person.”

“Right now is not the time because I wouldn’t be able to donate the right amount of time,” he added. “If I do it, I want to do it well. It’s not a vanity thing; I’d want to be successful; I’d want it to make money.”

AirAsia to launch Colombo- Kuala Lumpur flights

15 May 2009

AirAsia will soon launch Colombo- Kuala Lumpur direct daily flights.

A representative of AirAsia, Spencer Lee told Daily News Business that the company is planning to commence operations in August and is in the process of finalizing the agreement with their local agent.

He said there is a growing demand for air travel between Colombo and Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur is a gateway for many destinations in the Asian region.

There will be a huge boost in tourism and business activities in both destination and Sri Lanka is a lucrative market. There will be business travellers and tourists travelling between these two destinations, he said.

We feel this is the right time to enter the Sri Lankan market. The company will have a new airbus for Sri Lanka`s operations. The company will appoint an officer to handle Sri Lanka`s operations, he said.

Our philosophy is `Now Everyone Can Fly` through offering low cost airfares which will make it more affordable for passengers, he said.

The low fare airline, AirAsia has been expanding rapidly since 2001, to become an award winning and the largest low cost carrier in Asia. With a fleet of 72 aircraft, AirAsia flies to over 61 domestic and international destinations with 108 routes, and operates over 400 flights daily from hubs in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia

AirAsia sees opportunities amid slowdown

15 May 2009

It is to triple advertising spending

KUALA LUMPUR: AirAsia Bhd will triple its advertising spending this year as it sees opportunities to expand amid the economic slowdown, said group chief executive officer Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes.

However, he declined to disclose the figures for competitive reasons.He told StarBiz that two days ago, the budget airline managed to sell 250,000 seats in one day, a record for the company.

“I always believe nothing is impossible and for me, at this time of uncertainty, a lot of opportunities are there for us to grab,” Fernandes said yesterday after speaking at the Malaysian Association of Professional Speakers seminar here.

“... This is the best time for you to build your brand as others are taking a step backward,” he said.

AIRASIA group chief executive Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes

He pointed out that Air Asia would fly to destinations that other airlines wouldn’t dare go to such as Acheh, Bandung and Macau.

“The markets that are still untapped are very big out there. If you dare to go and with proper plans, you will succeed,” he said.

At the seminar, Fernandes said creativity, brand innovation and technology were crucial in running a business in these turbulent times.

“A business entity needs to have a very good environment. The workplace should be a fun place to be, as this will help the workers to come up with more creative and bright ideas,” he said.

He also said the budget airline hoped to help the Government boost the tourism sector amid the slowdown. “We want to contribute to the economy, pushing our networking services to woo more tourists to come and spend here,” he said.

Amex launches first tie-up with budget airline

14 May 2009

[top photo: Mr Peter Kapoor (L), regional vice-president of American Express, holding up a model of an AirAsia plane.]

SEVEN years ago, a fledgling low-cost airline approached credit-card companies in Singapore, hoping they would allow their cards to be used in online and over-the-phone transactions.

Things did not work out with American Express (Amex) then.

Roll on seven years and the budget airline, AirAsia, has grown in prominence, adding many more routes and even flying to longer-haul destinations such as the United Kingdom. It was recently voted the world's best low-cost airline.

In 2006, it was Amex's turn to do the courting, said its regional vice-president Peter Kapoor as it embarked on a "three-year courtship" to work out a tie-up with AirAsia.

Yesterday, the two firms scored a first when they launched a partnership; Amex previously had tie-ups only with full-service airlines such as Singapore Airlines.

Amex cardmembers can now use their credit cards to book AirAsia flights online and over the phone.

AirAsia's popularity with Amex cardholders was one major reason the credit-card company sought to work out the partnership with the airline, said Mr Kapoor.

"The low-cost carrier is not just for backpacking travellers. Nowadays, businessmen, whether from big corporations or small companies, travel on budget airlines, especially to our neighbouring countries."

AirAsia's regional head of commercial Kathleen Tan said there have been some 30,000 transactions with Amex customers since the tie-up was implemented last month.

Ms Tan said the airline grew by 30 per cent in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year, despite the economic crisis and worldwide flu scare.

"During an economic downturn, there's more reason for companies to cut costs, but people still need to fly. We are providing for that - premium flights that are affordable."