Indonesia Air Asia

Kuching - Jakarta QZ7685/06MAY2008
Jakarta - Kuching QZ7684/10MAY2008

Both flights were delayed badly; 1:45 and 3:45 respectively. Zero marks for punctuality (but to be fair there were other flights leaving on time). But read on ... they're not altogether that bad ...

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Air Asia, the brand is legally made up of four airlines (2 Malaysian, 1 Thai and 1 Indonesian) ... I had some doubts flying with an Indonesian budget airline due to recent events leading up to the banning by the EU of any airline with an Indonesian licence.

Kim who is a very experienced Flight Attendant was bowled over ... impressed beyond expectation, that is ... by the attention to safety that was placed by their cabin crew. On our first flight, we sat close to the front of the aircraft and noticed the leading flight attendant:

- Stopping passengers in their tracks while boarding to turn off their phones (while making an announcement at the same time).
- Making announcements to request passengers leave their seatbelts unfastened until further notice while the aircraft was still being refuelled (something easily and often neglected).
- re-seating a couple of able-bodied men beside the main boarding door opposite her jump seat.

On both flights the leading flight attendants gave additional safety briefing for passengers seated by the main boarding door:

- Check what language the passengers could understand.
- Check if they were happy to help evacuate the plane in an emergency.
- Explain that in an emergency the pilots would announce "Evacuate, Evacuate" over the PA, at which point they would make sure the plane has stopped, look out the porthole for fire (or obstacles), then open the door (and how to) ... then wait for the slide to inflate then shout "Evacuate, Evacuate".
- Explain that should the slide fail or obstacles are seen, grab a wall-mounted handle and redirect passengers to other exits. Kim explained to me that it is important to grab the handle in such a situation as frenzied passengers may shove you out in their mad rush to escape through an unusable exit.
- Explain that in normal circumstances, do not touch the door handle!!!

Kim said ... "that's nearly my entire training"! Well, hopefully their maintenance engineers and pilots are as good.