“All I and AirAsia have ever tried to do was to make it cheaper for the average man to dream and fly like those with money. One day airports, regulators and politicians will understand,” he said alluding to the controversy over the increase in passenger services charges (PSC) at klia2, which is the main hub for AirAsia.“I’m probably one of the most unpopular men for being outspoken and trying to make flying affordable. But won’t stop till the slogan I came up with in the shower becomes true. ‘Now Everyone Can Fly’. The battle must never stop,” he wrote on his FB page.
How many times have we heard the same scratched record being played. Ironically it's loudest when there is something happening that we are not meant to know, so lets create the smoke screen!
Now if I want to create a low cost organisation, logic will tell me that there are two costs that I am required to give my attention too,
A. Cost that are outside my control(external), primarily these are the cost that I incur from my suppliers because I need goods and services. These costs I manage by employing frameworks like Supply Chain Management, Just in Time, Bulk Buying, Long Term Supply Agreements, Heavy Discounting, etc, etc. But ultimately there is a level beyond which the supplier will say, "Sorry ole chap, I cannot do that as I would be making a loss!"
B. Then there are internal costs, cost that are within my control. Again there are various solutions I could employ to keep a tight reign on the costs. I could employ large scale IT systems to increase productivity, making front line personnel cleaners(never thought about the hygiene situation - one minute cleaning, next serving food) keeping head counts to a minimum, doing fanciful things like hedging and getting rid of the trappings of grandeur. But this will entail leadership and setting the tone at the top, the very top! That means giving up the Bombardier private jet that in itself incurs a bag load of money. After all why should it not be them using their own product, would not the towkays be great ambassadors for the organisation?
C. The pass through "financial items(costs)" that organisations are required NOT to incur in their own right but are mere de-facto collection agents of other organisations or the government, like PSC(a consumer tax levied on the passenger), GST(a consumer tax levied on the user of goods and services) or PCB( tax deducted at source for salary I the employee earns). These cost have nothing to do with the organisation and its costs structure. Does anyone remember the times when we went to the airport to check in, at the time of checking in we had to hand over cash for our passenger service tax, there are still countries that employ this method. This has nothing to do with the airlines!
So stop all this noise, concentrate on A and B, if you feel that you are not getting what you pay for, than please go talk to MAHB, don't treat your customers as being less informed. Anyway what happened to the Muhibbah Dinner that the organisation had with MAHB?, I suppose MAHB may once again need to suggest making public the debtors position of its various clients!
For 2018 I hope towkay remembers that not only ‘Now Everyone Can Fly', but also everyone went to school, can read and rationalise.
Happy New Year Towkays!
