Introduction AirAsia

Asia's leading airline was established with the dream of making flying possible for everyone.

Since 2001, AirAsia has swiftly broken travel norms around the globe and has risen to

become the world's best. With a route network that spans through to over 20 countries,

AirAsia continues to pave the way for low-cost aviation through innovative solutions,

efficient processes and a passionate approach to business. Together with their associate

companies, AirAsia X, Thai AirAsia, Indonesia AirAsia, Philippines' AirAsia Inc and

AirAsia Japan, they are set to take low-cost flying to an all new high with the belief, "Now

Everyone Can Fly".

AirAsia started from an airline with two aircraft plying six routes in Malaysia in January

2002 and revolved to cover 65 destinations in 18 countries for last nine years. As of today,

the Group, had employed more than 8,000 staff and with a market capitalisation of just over

RM7.06 billion (as at 31 December 2010), it is the only Truly ASEAN airline that serving the

region's 600 million population from 10 hubs in three countries - Kuala Lumpur, Kuching,

Penang and Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia; Bangkok and Phuket in Thailand; and Jakarta, Bali,

Bandung and Surabaya in Indonesia.

As the leading low-cost carrier, they manage to connect people and places across 132 routes,

where 40 of which are do not offered by any other airline. The Group, which includes

affiliates AirAsia Thailand and AirAsia Indonesia, reinforced its leadership position with two

remarkable milestones: flying its 100 millionth guest and breaking the RM1 billion profit

barriers by 2010.

In year 2012, AirAsia had executed several Pubic Relation campaign and practice as

mentioned below:-

Community Relation

Efficiency & the Environment

AirAsia is fully cognizant of the fact the aviation industry contributes to about 2% of global

CO2 emissions and is committed to playing its part to reduce as far as possible the carbon

footprint of all the actions and operations. The fleet is made up of 123 Airbus A320 aircraft

which represent the most fuel-efficient narrow body aircraft in the world. What is more, its

fleet is one of the youngest in the region, with an average age of just 3.5 years, lending then

an edge not only in terms of fuel efficiency but also ensuring that they meet international

standards on noise pollution.

Emphasis on efficiency at AirAsia is such that they have a department dedicated to enhancing

efficiency levels of all aspects of their operations. This department works closely with GE

Aviation’s Performance-Based Navigation and Fuel & Carbon Solutions teams to further

fine-tune their operations with highly sophisticated systems. Although AirAsia fuel

consumption is already among the lowest in the region/world but their objective is to reduce

the fuel consumption by a further 3% in short term.

Among the initiatives action that AirAsia had taken to increase the fuel efficiency as part of

the commitment in their parts to reduce the carbon footprint as much as possible for the

community:

• Tankering Fuel – There are occasions when it is more cost-effective to carry more fuel on-

board than is necessary, for example when the price of fuel at the destination is significantly

higher than the price at the point of departure, therefore strike an optimum level of fuel

carried to achieve the greatest cost-efficiency.

• Water Load – Optimise the volume of water carried on-board to reduce the weight of

aircraft with the policy is to fill water tanks.

• Aircraft Speed – Ensuring their aircraft take off at the optimal speed and subsequently

maintain optimal acceleration until attaining the cruising speed.

• Regular Engine Wash – Clean engines are more fuel-efficient and increase the interval

between engine overhauls. These initiatives afford us 0.5- 0.7% savings from fuel

consumption.

• Engine Thrust Rating - Airbus 320 aircraft have two engine ratings (23.5K and 27K).

Where possible, AirAsia use the lower thrust rating to reduce the maintenance costs.

The initiatives action above shown that AirAsia were concerned toward the environmental

and harm that had been caused by them with their unavoidable business nature operation.

Therefore with such Public Relation practice this will manage to build AirAsia a good

corporate image to the public that they do care to the community as well. They will reveal the

action taken in their annual Sustainability Report to inform their shareholders.

Employee relation

Below are the 2 example of the programme that AirAsia did to improve their employee

relation in the year 2012:-

Big Red Awesome Idea Network (BRAIN)

Big Red AirAsia launched Awesome Idea Network (BRAIN) in February 2012, their latest

employee engagement programme. This is a crowd sourcing concept, where the challenges

faced in any organization can be at least partially managed by opening the solution process to

all employees. Under BRAIN, all Allstars – from ramp staff to senior executives are

encouraged to identify aspects of their daily work that can be improved.

Other than that, Allstars are also given the opportunity to contribute, comment on and vote

for ideas put forward to improve the business related tasks and services. The initial phase of

the project was conducted in Malaysia from 15 February to 9 May 2012, attracting 195

suggestions from over 100 Allstars. Since then, the BRAIN has gone Groupwide reaching out

to all Allstars to express and present their creative and innovative ideas to improve their daily

tasks.

Employee Relations Programme

AirAsia also provide the services of an in-house counselor to help their staff manage work-

related or personal grievances. This is to provide the employee a place to express the

dilemma and stress that might caused from their daily hectic work task. In addition, there are

also some other employee relations programme which AirAsia is offering like coaching,

mentoring, yoga and meditation classes, soft-skills classes like communication, values of life

and leadership.

Public Affair

As a result of enabling air travel, AirAsia had opened up many possibilities for the people of

Asean and beyond by making lifelong held dreams come true and taking AirAsia

commitment to local community’s one step further. AirAsia (L) Foundation (AirAsia

Foundation) in March 2012 provides more focus and structure to their social sustainability

commitment. With the Foundation, they are able to reach targeted society and achieve desired

impact in giving back to the people who have made it possible for AirAsia to come this far.

One of the public affair services that AirAsia did in year 2012 was:-

Heritage & Conservation

AirAsia Foundation awarded its first grant in October 2012 to Cambodian Living Arts

(CLA), where they are seeking to revive Cambodian performing arts after two decades during

which many artistes and musicians perished. AirAsia Foundation’s begin their partnership by

sponsoring its participation in the 2012 Penang Georgetown Festival. Under the resulting

Plae Pakaa (Fruitful) Project, AirAsia Foundation is funding year-long classes for 100

students and also bearing the start-up costs to establish a daily show at the museum, which is

one of the most visited in the region.

Just two months from the commencement of the show on 1 November 2012, Plae Pakaa

Project it had attracted 2,025 visitors, earning RM61, 500 in ticket sales, product sales and

donations. They also had been featured in AirAsia in-flight magazine, Travel3Sixty°, to

promote sustainable tourism activities to Phnom Penh visitors.

Publicity

AirAsia Recognized at the 1st Asian Excellence Recognition Awards

In 6 April 2011, AirAsia the world’s best low cost airline picked up three awards – Best

Investor Relations Company for Malaysia, Best CEO for Malaysia and Best Investor

Relations Officer for Malaysia at the first Asian Excellence Recognition Awards by

Corporate Governance Asia that held in Hong Kong on March 31. AirAsia’s Chairman Dato’

Aziz Abu Bakar on behalf of the airline received the Best Investor Relations Company for

Malaysia award while Mr Benyamin Ismail was awarded the Best Investor Relations Officer

for Malaysia.

The first Asian Excellence Recognition Awards recognizes excellence in investor

communications, business ethics, corporate social responsibility, environmental practices and

financial performances and this recognitions are awarded based on interviews conducted with

investors. The recognition award is part of Corporate Governance Asia’s mission to enhance

corporate governance practices throughout Asia. This is the fourth award picked up by

AirAsia in 2011, after receiving Asia’s Best Low Cost Cargo Carrier Award 2011 at the

Aviation Award Asia; Fastest Growing Foreign Airline for Cargo from the Guangzhou

Baiyun International Airport and Asiamoney’s Best Managed Company Award 2010 in the

last two months.

Through this award winning, AirAsia manage to create exposure and publicity for the

organization. In addition, it will build up a trusted brand among the competitor and prove to

their customer that they are best within the industry.

Special Events

Air Asia receives its 100th A320 from Airbus with a special flair

On 24 May 2012, Air Asia marked another milestone on the way to becoming the largest

A320 operator worldwide by accepting its 100th aircraft, celebrating this event with a special

touch that underscores the close relationship established between this low-cost carrier and

Airbus. During a event ceremony at Airbus’ Toulouse, France delivery centre, the A320 was

unveiled in the presence of Gallois, who was welcomed by Air Asia Group CEO Tony

Fernandes, and joined by Airbus President and CEO Thomas Enders, along with John Leahy,

Airbus’ Chief Operating Officer Customers. Attending the event were members of the

international press, who gathered in Toulouse for Airbus’ annual Innovation Days event.

The airline currently has 375 unit of A320s on order, including Airbus’ A320neo (new engine

option) version. Fernandes said Air Asia’s innovative route structure includes 50 percent of

routes that were not previously operated by other carriers, with many of these segments using

the A320’s operational flexibility – including opening access to many airports.

Fund-raising

The AirAsia (L) Foundation (AirAsia Foundation) aims to leverage on AirAsia’s

entrepreneurial edge to empower communities, thus help them to improve their socio-

economic standing in the long term. To date, AirAsia have ‘adopted’ two Malaysia-based

social enterprises which they are supporting via funds as well as training. They are the Gerai

Orang Asal, which serves to promote the livelihood of indigenous minorities in Malaysia; and

Silent TEDdies, which focuses on providing the hearing-impaired with income-generating

skills. Below mentioned are the fund-raising activities had been done to support them:-

Gerai Orang Asal (Gerai OA)

Gerai OA is a volunteer-run, non-profit venture which will collect craft products from the

artisans’ villages for sale at craft fairs as the fund-raising to support the artisan villager. All

fund-raising profits will be return to the artisans together with donations of medicines, clothes

and food. Gerai OA currently supports 30 villages and more than 100 indigenous artisans

across Malaysia. In the mean while, AirAsia play their parts by provides Gerai OA volunteers

with complimentary return flights and baggage allowance to facilitate their work. So far,

AirAsia have provided one free passage from Kota Belud, Sabah to Kuala Lumpur for a

volunteer to participate in the annual National Craft Expo in March 2012; and two flights in

September 2012 for coordinators to participate in technique-exchange workshops at the

World Eco-Fibre and Textile (WEFT) Forum in Kuching, Sarawak.

Effect of the Public Relation Practice

Employee

In 2012, AirAsia was named the Most Popular Graduate Employer in Leisure, Travel and

Hospitality at Malaysia’s 100 Leading Graduate Employers 2012 Awards. This was the first

time AirAsia won this award and they are always strategically-driven in approaching to

human capital development. AirAsia truly believe that their Allstars (name given as being

AirAsia staff) are the greatest assets, therefore they invest significantly in recruiting and

retaining the best talents. AirAsia goal is to provide a conductive environment in which their

Allstars feel motivated to realise their potential while contributing in a meaningful way to the

attainment of their vision and goals.

AirAsia employee programme allowed their employee to know the organization better as

well. Employee will felt more secure if they know the organization management and things

that are on-going and the reason behind it. This will also indirectly increase the productivity

as the employees are able working willingly, enthusiastically, knowledgeable, proudly and

efficiently. It can be reflected from the reduction of the employee absenteeism that cause by

poor motivation and boredom.

Company Campaign

Airsia manage to execute many Public Relation practice in variety of area that cover

externally and internally stakeholders. They manage to create an identical image like

corporate image of their logo and mirror image of the CEO with their effort in the Public

Relation campaign. Besides that, AirAsia able to create a new identity to the public

conventional impression towards airline with their slogan “Everyone can fly” where taking

flight is no longer as expensive and luxury as they used to think.

Airsia also taking care of their employee by launching program such as BRAIN to make their

employee felt the sense of belonging when their voice and idea actually was needed and

appreciated by the organization. With such strong and good image of the organization, they

manage to attract more caliber job applicant as well. An organization that has strong identity

and caliber employee will indirectly strengthen the company against the risk to be taking

over.

Society

AirAsia fully used of the latest media channel – Social Media to regain the public confident

after crisis disaster. Besides that, some of their program also dedicated to improve

community relation from public criticism. Airsia Public Relation practice also is a channel for

them to update about their organizational internal stories of the management as well as the

employee activities in order for the public to understand them better. As a result, they will

gain credit and understanding from it. Even their CEO was making use of this channel to get

closer to their customer and make them felt they are being heard and treasured. This

indirectly will gain the public confident towards the organization as well.

Media Analysis

Social Media

Apart from the conventional media channel like newspaper, TV or radio advertisement,

customer’s newsletter, AirAsia is going beyond than that to approach the latest media tool -

Social Media. AirAsia are going into the direction of being young, vibrant and, most

importantly, driven by a strong people focus which make AirAsia became one of the most

inspiring success stories of use of the social media by a corporation. While others grapple

with the intricacies of gaining fans and keeping them, AirAsia are ahead of the game,

incorporating social media into the Group’s core values and using platforms such as

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and blogs rather like Lego – to build relationships,

build their business, build efficient communication channels, build excitement, and of course

building their brand as well.

By holding the principles Listen, Engage and Connect close to the customer heart, AirAsia

have been able to revolutionize the social networking the same way as they had successfully

done in the air travel. Of course, with the high-profile personalities like the Group CEO Tan

Sri Dr. Tony Fernandes who have embraced this new paradigm full-heartedly where every

time there is something interesting to report whether it is new routes, or updates on the

running bet with Virgin’s Branson, the performance of the Queens Park Rangers, or the

search for new Allstars to staff the upcoming India operations, the public can expect a quick

blip from his twitter. Even the new in the role of AirAsia Berhad CEO, Aireen Omar also has

begun to tweet actively to build relationships with the public where in fact, she has even

started an Instagram account where she shares sneak peeks into her life as CEO as well as

beautiful photos of some destinations – all the better to entice her followers to fly with

AirAsia!

The fact is, AirAsia have not jumped on the social network bandwagon for the sake of it but

is because they are a “people company” and social media is a great platform to connect with

their guests and fans in the easiest and fastest link. AirAsia Group CEO - Tan Sri Tony

Fernandes’s tweets aren’t just one-way bytes of info; often they lead to running conversations

with complete strangers who eventually feel a closer, more emotional connection with

AirAsia. By acting on their tweets operationally, their fans feel a sense at least of ‘part

ownership’ of AirAsia airline, further reinforcing the brand as a people’s airline. According

to eezer.com, a social network site that features tweets and location-verified reviews related

to travel, AirAsia has the greatest number of two-way tweets between itself and its consumers

among all airlines. Suddenly with this current wave make AirAsia no longer just another low-

cost airline, but an airline that values and respects people who make the time to interact with

them.

So what’s next for AirAsia to expand further? They were already on Facebook, Twitter,

YouTube and blog, and in late 2011, started an Instagram account (@AirAsia) to showcase

AirAsia Allstar culture, allowing fans a peep into happenings at the AirAsia headquarters.

The photo-sharing app proved to be a success as fans all around the globe able to follow them

to get a better feel of what goes on at AirAsia behind the scenes. Their Instagram success was

even noted by Jaunted.com, a popular pop culture travel guide, which named AirAsia as the

top airline to follow on this social media platform. Meanwhile, recognizing the obvious

advantages of connecting with the world’s most populated country, Tan Sri Tony started a

Weibo account in late August. With AirAsia in-country social media team providing quick

translation services, he currently has over 76,000 followers. Currently there are 1.8million of

“Likes” on AirAsia Facebook and Instagram Followers are 28.

Air Asia Crisis involved in the company campaign.

On August 8, 2012, AirAsia as the world’s largest low-cost airline officially opened their

regional headquarter in Jakarta in order to enhance their operational effectiveness in

Southeast Asia. During the event, AirAsia Group’s CEO Tony Fernandes commented that the

AirAsia ASEAN regional office would help the airline to better prepare itself for the

implementation of the ASEAN Open Sky policy and the ASEAN Economic Community in

2015. Besides Indonesia, ASEAN comprises Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia,

Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

However, in one of the event photos that was posted in Facebook, where their flight crew

spotted traditional dresses from ASEAN countries to promote their diversity of destinations, a

lady wearing a cheongsam, a body-hugging one-piece Chinese dress for women was spotted

instead of the Ao Dai (traditional dress of Vietnam). The photo was quickly spread like

wildfire within Vietnam local online community attracting hundreds of angry comments and

suggestion of boycotting the airline. Hot bloggers jumped in the conversation with their anger

over the national dress mis-representation. Local popular newspapers such as Thanh Nien

Newspaper article also featured the news. Social media, again, showed their prowess as the

main engine behind the internet rage.

With this incident, AirAsia will likely be simmered in a big Public Relation crisis in Vietnam

market. It does affect the company’s latest effort in penetrating the market. Strangely, the

Public Relation and Social Media team at headquarter did not take any prompt measure to

solve this situation. Instead, they kept the photo and tried to talk their way out of this

situation, which further angers the local netizens. However, the explanation is completely in

contrast to the fact highlighted in the original article that “Besides Indonesia, ASEAN

comprises Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines,

Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.”

AirAsia is faring quite well in Vietnam, and they are one of a few low cost carriers in this

potential market. The question is do we have a case of nationalism and business interest

conflict here? When they insulted the national pride of a country, either by mistake or on

purpose, it would turn out to be bad for their business. The company has let the incident

prolong for a few days, and has not taken any decisive action to put an end to this crisis.

Meanwhile, the photo is still kept on their Facebook fan pages and still being shared around

the internet.

With AirAsia’s corrective actions; it seems like AirAsia refused to admit and apologize to

Vietnamese netizens with regards to this incident. Instead, AirAsia just issued vague

explanations that make the Vietnamese netizens, their potential customers, even angrier. They

even let the crisis go on for so long without any solution.

The crisis management strategy used by AirAsia in this situation could possibly explained

that AirAsia intends to let the case die down by itself or rather a source of ride on this wave

to spread awareness of their brand thou its negative. In either case, great damage will be done

to their business in Vietnam if the case gets unresolved. We still did not see any involvement

from their senior management team in the social media aspect of the case.

There are some actions or measures that AirAsia could have taken for better mitigation in this

situation. They could have taken down the photo when the incident started to breakout.

“Customer is always right” should be in the company culture or core values. They could have

also issued an official statement with a clear and straight-forward explanation or rather

contacted the public media outlets to rectify the situation.

We must advocate the great impact this incident has caused to the company’s Public

Relation, and this blows up within a few days thanks to the prowess of social media. For an

international company like AirAsia, cultural sensitivity should be their no.1 priority.

However, they slipped on this case and hurt the pride of Vietnamese citizens.

Conclusion

When a long-cherished dream of Tan Sri Dr. Tony Fernandes to own an airline came true, the

new management announced their plan to create a low-cost carrier so that everyone in Asean

can fly, it was a dream promised to the region’s 600 million or so population.

Today, AirAsia was able to build a trusted brand with a great corporate image. In order to

establish such amazing branding, Public Relation plays a big part to sustain their status as the

leading low cost carriers. AirAsia will always looking beyond of what conventional in

communication by fully utilize available channel like social media as well as they aware they

have a duty to be transparent and to keep their stakeholders informed of their plans and

strategies. AirAsia are taking the level of their Public Relation proficiency even further by

producing a Sustainability Report.

Beside branding and corporate publicity of their services to customers, Airsia never ever

neglect their valuable asset to make their dreams come true by supporting the career

ambitions of their employee - Allstars; and by promoting the sporting aspirations of hundreds

of talented youth in the region. As a payback to the public that make them where they are

now, setting up of the AirAsia Foundation in 2012, also championing entrepreneurial

development, heritage conservation and social issues. While in the community aspect they do

initiate action to reduce their footprint within their daily operation.

Therefore, as conclusion Public Relation practice in AirAsia did play a great part in all area

within the organization internally and externally. It had grown and groomed the company to

be globally well recognized and established leading brand for low cost carriers we all

acknowledged today.

References

AirAsia (2012). AirAsia Berhad Annual Report 2012

AirAsia (2012). AirAsia Berhad Sustainability Report 2012

AirAsia (2012). Retrieve on 30 July 2013 from http://www.airasia.com

AirAsia (2012). Retrieve on 1st August 2013 from http://www.airbus.com/newsevents/news-events-single

AirAsia (2012). Retrieve on 3rd August 2013 from http://www.myfew.net/ airasia -recognized-at-the-1st-asian-excellence-recognition-awards.html

AirAsia (2012). Retrieve on 1st August 2013 from http://www.investorrelations@ airasia.com.

AirAsia (2013). Retrieve on 1st August 2013 from http://www.thejakartapost.com

AirAsia (2013). Retrieve on 7th August 2013 from http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151142054017387&set=a.10151142053912387.503634.18801397386&type=3&theater

AirAsia (2013). Retrieve on 1st August 2013 from http://marketingguyinvietnam.wordpress.com/

AirAsia (2013). Retrieve on 9th August 2013 from http://www.thanhnien.com.vn/pages/20120809/air-asia-dung-xuong-xam-dai-dien-trang-phuc-vn.aspx