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Executive Column: Affect of QZ8501 incident on sales only minor: Fernandes
Tony Fernandes - (Bloomberg)It has been two months since the crash of AirAsia flight QZ8501 into the Java Sea, which claimed the lives of all 162 passengers and crew on board
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Tony Fernandes - (Bloomberg) (Bloomberg)
Tony Fernandes - (Bloomberg)
It has been two months since the crash of AirAsia flight QZ8501 into the Java Sea, which claimed the lives of all 162 passengers and crew on board.
Just a few days after the crash, Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan suspended the airline's Surabaya-Singapore route permit. The minister also issued a regulation to change the country's airline-ticket price formula to prevent budget airline operators from offering unrealistically low fares, in an attempt to improve safety.
The Jakarta Post's Nadya Natahadibrata recently talked to AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes about the airline's business in Indonesia following the crash.
Question: How seriously has the flight QZ8501 incident affected AirAsia's operations and ticket sales?
Answer: Obviously we were impacted. But, we are now coming back quite strongly. We also didn't do any advertising for the last 50 days. Only recently we started a little bit. We see the response already on sales is quite good. We fly quite full from Kuala Lumpur to Surabaya, Jakarta etc. and the business is growing quite quickly.
Many people think that AirAsia handled the crisis very well following the incident. What did you learn from it?
I don't think anyone can handle anything like this well. It's the worst thing that can ever happen. We still have to find just short of 60 [victims] and until we do that it's not over for us and after that we are tied to the families forever and it's our job to ensure that we are always there for them.
But we did it in the only way we knew how to do it. From here, there's no book or manual or strategy on how you can do it. And we never talked to lawyers about what to say and what not to say. We just did it. But it reemphasizes to us that the most important thing is people. Everyone's got beaches, everyone's got mountains. The difference is the people. What's special about ASEAN is the people.
And what I found over this period is people's strength is amazing. And actually many of the families gave me strength. And Indonesia was a very special place for us before, and it is an even more special place for us now. And we are very determined that we will be the best and we owe it to the families and our crew that Indonesia AirAsia will deliver the best service, the best products, the best communication and the best choice.
Many people think that we're going to slow down. Our strategy has changed that we are more determined that we provide great service and Surabaya has become very important to us and we wanted to start flying everywhere again from Surabaya. And that's the only changed strategy.
After the accident, how do you see our government and its policies in the aviation industry?
We think we have done a great job for the people of Indonesia. We think we have promoted and spent a lot of investment in Indonesia. Our company is run by Indonesians.
I think, I have got to thank the government for the tremendous effort they put in with Basarnas [the National Search and Rescue Agency]. I think the President was fantastic to come down, the Vice President came down.
How about the government's floor-price policy, which has hampered competition?
We are committed to Indonesia. No one is going stop us. We owe it to our staff who have been amazing, we owe it to the people of Indonesia to continue to promote Indonesia as the one of the greatest countries in the world. That's our job. We're not going to give up. We are best when we have our backs against the wall. That's number one.
Number two, low fares do not equate to poorer safety standards. Low fares stimulate people to go. ['¦] We follow the regulations. We have always complied. We think there's so much to be done for Indonesia. Tourism is a fantastic job creator. For me, we started the airline with one aim. To give people jobs, to give people a chance to live their dreams. Anything that could help create jobs, the government should support.
Do you see an opportunity following Lion Air's massive delays last week?
No. I always say that we should help each other when we go through problems. We shouldn't look at capitalizing, that is not our style and you can ask any of our staff. I always focus on ourselves; how we make ourselves better. And how do we provide better products.
I don't spend my time looking at others and I certainly don't want anyone to have any problems. We have suffered a lot. I don't want anyone to go through that and I really mean that. I sympathize with the staff of Lion Air because it must have been very difficult. I sympathize with the passengers.
In the same way I hope they sympathize with us and didn't look at capitalizing on our problems. I think that's wrong. For me I don't look at opportunity. I want to focus on our own airline and make sure that we are the best for the people of Indonesia.
