Few Concerns in the Wake of Air Asia Crash

The crash of an Air Asia jetliner off Indonesia three days after Christmas is raising broader questions about the state of aviation safety in the region; it is, after all, the third major accident in ten months involving a Malaysia-based carrier.

Yet travel agents said few customers have called with concerns. They aren’t aware of any pattern of booking away from a destination or a particular carrier, they added.

“It is unfortunate that this all happening there, but based on what we know, it doesn’t look like there is any connection”  among the crashes, said Michelle Duncan, executive vice president of Odyssey Travel, a NEST and Affluent Traveler Collection member agency near Washington, D.C.  

Duncan said she hadn’t heard from any clients who were worried about traveling to the region.

Still, the accident has cast a pall on the area’s tourism industry, with Malaysia’s Minister of Tourism and Culture postponing the launch of the “Malaysia Year of Festivals 2015” that was originally set to kick off Jan. 10.

The minister cited the Air Asia crash as one reason, along with heavy flooding in several Malaysian states.

The promotion was aimed at boosting international visitors to the country, according to the announcement.

Growth of Asian aviation
And while weather appears to be a factor in the most recent crash, that hasn’t stopped numerous media pundits from publicly linking 2014’s trio of aviation disasters: the still-unsolved disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight 370, with 239 aboard, the downing of a second Malaysia 777 carrying 298 people over Ukraine by a surface to air missile, and now, the crash of Air Asia flight 8501 off Borneo, with 162 people flying from Surabaya to Singapore.  

Several experts emphasized the sharp growth in Asian aviation in recent years and the rise of budget airlines like Air Asia as a possible factor, contributing perhaps to lax safety standards.  

But in fact, before the recent rash of accidents, both Malaysia Airlines and Air Asia, a 15-year-old budget carrier based in Malaysia, had good safety records.

Under scrutiny
Air Asia has grown rapidly, however, opening various subsidiaries under its brand name. The Airbus A320 that crashed Dec. 28 was operated by Air Asia Indonesia, which flies within Indonesia as well as to other countries in the region.  

Indonesia’s airline industry has been under scrutiny in recent years. Demand for air travel in the country has surged, but an earlier series of accidents raised questions about whether there is adequate government oversight of this sector, and at one point, all but five of the country’s 67 airlines landed on a European Union blacklist.   

The Air Asia Indonesia subsidiary was not among those banned, and neither was flag airline Garuda.

The budget airline option
Duncan said she wouldn’t rule out a budget airline option for a client bound for more remote destinations.

“If it’s an offbeat destination, you are kind of limited in what you can take to get there,” especially in less populated areas, she noted.

Scott Koepf, senior vice president of sales at Avoya Travel, said that no one from his heavily leisure-focused client base has called to ask about airline safety in Asia.

“There is always going to be concern over [press] coverage like this, but I haven’t seen any particular drop in interest” in Indonesia or Malaysian destinations, he said.

Koepf noted that neither airline flies to the U.S. and thus they may be less familiar to American travelers.  

Malaysia Airlines ceased flying to Los Angeles last year and had earlier dropped its East Coast flights.

No GDS presence
And while some U.S. travelers may book Air Asia on its website, the carrier isn’t in all GDSs used by U.S. agents, according to Terry Regan, owner and president of Berkeley’s Northside Travel in Berkeley, Calif.

Regan has booked Air Asia tickets for some clients looking for a less expensive way to get around Asia, but since the carrier doesn’t have sales or support staff here, “I tell them if something goes wrong they’ll have to deal with the carrier directly.”

While the investigation into the cause of the latest crash is just beginning—and no conclusive reports have been issued in the other accidents—experts insist that commercial airline travel worldwide is extremely safe.

“You have to look at this in the context of total miles flown,” said Bruce McIndoe, president of iJet in Annapolis, MD, which specializes in travel risk management.   

McIndoe said his firm’s analysts are watching the rapid growth in Asia closely.

“You have to put this in context,” he said. “Overall, you have a one in 12 million chance of dying in a commercial airliner worldwide, while your chance of dying in a lightning strike is one in 4 million.”