AIR ASIA SAFE TO FLY?

2 weeks ago, a Japanese friend asked me if "Air Asia safe to fly?" I told him that it was OK as Air Asia has a fairly good safety record except for the two incidents - one in Kota Kinabalu when their B737-300 skidded off the runway during landing in November 2004 and the other one was in Kuching when an Airbus 320 overshot the runway after touched down in January 2011. In both occasions, all passengers were safe.   

The B737-300 in Kota Kinabalu 

The A320 in Kuching

I warned him thought that Air Asia was "not always cheap" and could be more expensive than other airlines because of the hidden charges. The hidden charges are check-in baggage, seat selection, meals, insurance and many like the credit card processing fee and the recently added 'Convenience Fee'. There is also a check-in fee at their check-in counter.

To day, I read an article in an online newspaper reporting that Air Asia X pilots had breached the Australian safety margin. Australian air safety investigators have found that Air Asia X pilots twice flew so low into Gold Coast Airport that they breached the safety margin between ground and other plane.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau in a report, which classified the incident as “serious”, said the jets descended to a height where there was no longer separation assurance from the ground and from planes operating outside controlled airspace. But investigators said the crew were “probably not adequately equipped to manage the approach in other than autopilot managed mode”. There was low cloud and reduced visibility at the time but no reason was given for the pilots breaching the safe distance.

A330-300 of Air Asia X.

Anyway, I have forwarded the "news" from the online newspapers to my Japanese friend and leave it to him to decide to fly with Air Asia or otherwise.