In Reply to: Airasia flights posted by stormy on Wednesday, 4. February 2015 at 13:52 Bali Time:
This is a complete beat up by the union and The West Australian. Both have their own agenda's - the unions in that they don't like Air Asia as planes are serviced off shore, and The West Australian in that the editor of the aviation side is a self-declared Qantas fan. He even gets that wrong as after running an editorial on how good QF were had then had to run one the following weekend admitting that Qantas had lost planes but justified that as they were not in the Jet era.
Justified that running off the runway in Bangkok could not be counted as a QF error as plane was repaired and no one killed.
Did you also get the last little item that said CASA had dome some ramp audits on Air Asia Indonesia and could find no issues? That was a closing, quite remark.
On last night's TV they also made a lot of noise about Air Asia being banned from the EU & US airspace. On The West's aviation page airatings.com they do not disclose US air space but certainly quote the EU, and surprise surprise, all Air Asia airlines are, according to this page, authorised to fly into the EU. Wikipedia on the other hand advises that all Indonesian Airlines other than Airfast Indonesia and Garuda are banned.
Either his TV interview is incorrect or his web page is incorrect.
Does anyone else also remember that even Garuda was banned until recently?
I have been unsuccessful in finding any references not associated with The West to confirm US bans.
I am writing this as I get annoyed by criticism certain parties give competitors to QF.
A simple read of this forum will also show the contempt that Qantas have via their subsidiary Jetstar to the traveling public. I mean you have one airline that has reasonable leg space, advertises no service and is more often than not on time being Air Asia and then you have Jetstar who run late, have attitude in the cabin and tell you they have service if you pay (but then don't give any service anyway).
I Have flown every airline that has served Bali over the last 20 years from Perth (and yes - that included the likes of Sampati) with the exceptions of the limited service Sky West and Air Australia/ Strategic gave, and can say that in my opinion Garuda is well in front given that it is a full service airline but Air Asia is a very close #2, marginally above Virgin but streets ahead of Jetstar.
Flying Air Asia in a few weeks time and have no reservations about the quality I expect