Eleven members from the training team of the Barrier-free Environment and Accessible Transport Group (BEAT) had a meeting with trainers from AirAsia last Saturday. It was held at the AirAsia Academy in Sepang. We were there to get a clearer picture of how BEAT can draw up training modules to fit into AirAsia’s existing training for its staff. After the meeting we were given a tour of the Academy, especially the flight simulator complex.

AirAsia Academy at Sepang.
Photo by Wuan.

BEAT and AirAsia Academy staff inside the meeting room.
Photo by Wuan.

BEAT and AirAsia Academy staff inside the meeting room.
Photo by Wuan.

Mural on the corridor at AirAsia Academy.
Photo by Wuan.

Mural of a familiar face at the corridor of AirAsia Academy.
Photo by Wuan.

Emergency evacuation slide for a Boeing 737.
Photo by Wuan.

AirAsia Flight Simulator Complex.
Photo by Wuan.

Mock-up of an aircraft cabin with a real Airbus A320 door for training at AirAsia Academy.
Photo by Wuan.

Airbus A320 flight simulators at AirAsia Academy.
Photo by Wuan.

Boeing 737 flight simulator at AirAsia Academy.
Photo by Wuan.

Ms. Farhana of AirAsia Academy demonstrating an emergency drill.
Photo by Wuan.

Captain Kenneth Chong explaining the mock-up of a Boeing 737 cabin used for training.
Photo by Wuan.

Poster at the AirAsia Academy lounge.
Photo by Wuan.

Group photo of BEAT members and staff of AirAsia Academy.
Photo by Wuan.

Model of the aisle chair that AirAsia will equip all its aircraft with.
Photo by Wuan.

A wheelchair user nicely tucked in an airplane seat would feel pretty helpless without the means to move around. Never mind that the seat is luxuriously leather. On long-haul flights, I usually inform the airline of my needs well in advance to ensure that they are prepared. For me, one of the most useful piece of equipment inside an aircraft is an aisle chair. I need that to get to the toilet. The aisle chair is also important for me to get into and out of aircrafts at the airport.

Malaysia Airlines aisle chair at Penang International Airport for moving passengers from the airport into the aircraft.

Therefore it was great news for wheelchair users and those with reduced mobility when AirAsia Group Chief Executive Director Dato’ Tony Fernandez announced that all of AirAsia’s planes will be equipped with at least one aisle chair. This will clear a lot of anxieties for disabled passengers who need mobility inside aircrafts to empty their bladder in the privacy of the toilets.

Japan Airlines aisle chair at Narita International Airport for moving passengers from the airport into the aircraft.

The aisle chair is actually a wheelchair without the large back wheels that we normally see. Small casters are used in place. It has a narrow seat and high back to fit into the narrow aisles inside aircrafts. The chair has 2 straps - one a diagonal restraint for the torso and the other to keep the legs close together. It is not a comfortable thing to be in but is essential for mobility. The chair is also very portable and easily foldable into very compact configurations for easy storage.

Japan Airlines aisle chair at Narita International Airport with the large wheels removed.

AirAsia Press press conference backdrop at LCCT-KLIA.
Photo by Wuan.

It is difficult not to love Dato’ Tony Fernandez, Group Chief Executive Officer of AirAsia, especially if one is a disabled person. Immediately after the protest by the Barrier-Free Environment and Accessible Transport Group (BEAT), Dato’ Fernandez personally met with members of BEAT to discuss the ways to resolve issues faced by disabled persons wanting to book seats to fly with AirAsia.

AirAsia GCEO Dato’ Tony Fernandez giving his speech at the press conference at LCCT-KLIA.
Photo by Wuan.

Following that meeting on July 20, AirAsia held a press conference yesterday (August 4, 2007) to officially announce the measures taken by the company to ensure that disabled persons will be able to fly with the airline. Dato’ Fernandez told members of the press and about 50 BEAT members who were present at LCCT-KLIA yesterday that AirAsia has purchased 2 ambulifts – one for LCCT-KLIA and the other for Kota Kinabalu International Airport – to ease the boarding and disembarking of people with reduced mobility and disabled persons.

Members of BEAT at AirAsia’s press conference at LCCT-KLIA.
Photo by Wuan.

He also announced the current fleet of AirAsia’s Airbus 320 planes and all planes in the future will be equipped with at least one aisle chair for the mobility of passengers. All toilets inside the aircrafts will be affixed with handle bars for the convenience of passengers. After the press conference, members of the press and BEAT were invited to test out an ambulift similar to the two that AirAsia have purchased and will be operational in 3 months. As part of the program to sensitise AirAsia staff on disability issues, Dato’ Fernandez invited BEAT to work with AirAsia Academy in training on those matters. He has offered to employ 3 staff at AirAsia’s call centre and a few more in guest relations positions. That was not all!

BEAT Coordinator Christine Lee giving her speech at AirAsia’s Press press conference at LCCT-KLIA.
Photo by Wuan.

Dato’ Fernandez has allocated space on the skin of AirAsia’s newest plane, the 50th in the fleet that we had the privilege to see yesterday, to prominently promote BEAT’s and disabled persons’ cause like what is being done with Manchester United and the Williams F1 Team both of which AirAsia is sponsoring. That is not all yet! He has also requested from BEAT a tagline, quote or slogan for the message to be carried by Rooney and Ronaldo, both players of Manchester United. How cool can that be?

Dato’ Tony Fernandez posing with BEAT members applauding AirAsia
for resolving issues faced by disabled passengers.
Photo by Wuan.

I was a skeptic – still a little skeptical until I see the ambulifts and fly with AirAsia – but I have to give it to Dato’ Tony for being the only public figure in Malaysia who has taken the problems faced by disabled persons seriously and openly addressed it immediately. He has set a standard for all other corporations and the government to follow in making Malaysia an inclusive society. I like most his attitude when he said to take a negative and turn it into something positive.

An ambulift similar to the one that AirAsia has purchased parked beside
the newest aircraft in the fleet at LCCT-KLIA.
Photo by Wuan.

Syabas Dato’ Fernandez; Syabas AirAsia; and most of all Syabas to my fellow advocates in BEAT, especially Christine and Ragu for making this happen. The journey may still be long but this success with AirAsia has shown us all that with the right attitude, anything is possible and the sky may not even be the limit.

More photos:

Ambulift docking beside AirAsia’s newest Airbus 320.
Photo by Wuan.

BEAT members watching a demonstration of the ambulift at LCCT-KLIA.
Photo by Wuan.

BEAT members testing out the ambulift at LCCT-KLIA.
Photo by Wuan.

Peter Tan tranferring from plane seat to the aisle chair. Holding the
chair from behind is AirAsia Executive Vice President Bo Lingam.
Photo by Wuan.

Peter Tan trying to get into the toilet in AirAsia’s Airbus 320.
Photo by Wuan.

AirAsia’s plane stairs at LCCT-KLIA.
Photo by Wuan.

Read also:
AirAsia Still Practices Discrimination Against Disabled People
AirAsia, BEAT And What Disabled People Really Need

Nation
Sunday August 5, 2007

Easier for disabled to fly AirAsia soon

By V.P. SUJATA

SEPANG: Low-cost carrier AirAsia will spend RM6mil to provide ambulifts and aisle chairs for wheelchair-bound passengers.

The new facilities are expected to be ready in three months and there will be no additional cost to disabled passengers.

The carrier has also gone one step further by promising to hire disabled people to provide services to disabled passengers, as they would understand their needs better. Also in the works are disabled call centres via its website.

These are some of the carrier’s immediate plans in response to protests by the disabled about inadequate facilities.

AirAsia chief executive officer Datuk Tony Fernandes said the carrier initially wanted Malaysia Airports Bhd (MAB) to provide the facilities but decided later that the carrier could do it on its own for the sake of its loyal passengers.

Discussions with MAB led to nowhere, he said, but solutions were found after discussions with members of Barrier-Free Environment And Accessible Transport Group (BEAT), a coalition of 18 non-governmental organisations for the disabled which led the protest last month.

The ambulifts will be placed at the carrier’s hub here and another in Kota Kinabalu. Prior to this, the carrier’s staff had to physically carry disabled people on board.

Aisle wheelchairs will be used to push disabled passengers to their seats.

Fernandes said that BEAT had offered to train AirAsia cabin crew and call centre staff to handle disabled guests.

He said seven disabled people would be employed as guest service officers and to help man disabled call centres.

For totally immobile passengers, he said facilities were inadequate but assured them that in emergencies, AirAsia engineers would be called in to remove some seats to enable the passenger to lie flat.

BEAT co-ordinator Christine Lee said AirAsia’s move benefited the disabled as well as the carrier because families with disabled members previously had to choose other airlines due to the lack of facilities.

She thanked Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy for his immediate attention and intervention in the matter.

Describing Fernandes as a “CEO with a difference”, Lee said AirAsia admitted its fault and resolved the matter very fast.

She said the disabled community would extend its support to the low-cost carrier.

2007/08/04
AirAsia sets aside RM6 million for facilities catering to the disabled
By : Hamidah Atan
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PUTRAJAYA, Sat.:

AirAsia is living up to its tagline “Now Everyone Can Fly” with the introduction of several facilities for disabled travellers.
Yesterday, its chief executive Datuk Tony Fernandes launched the facilities, including ambu-lifts and special aisle wheelchairs, for passengers requiring assistance at its low-cost carrier terminal (LCCT) near here.

The budget airline had set aside RM6 million for the purchase of the equipment.

For a start, two ambu-lifts will be used at its terminals in Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu to get the disabled into its planes without having to be carried by ground staff.

Other terminals will feature similar amenities within four months while all new planes will be equipped with the aisle wheelchairs so that the disabled can move around on board.
As a mark of further co-operation between AirAsia and the disabled community, AirAsia will also hire handicapped people to work at its guest services counters and call centres.

Its website will also be upgraded so that the disabled can use it.

“What we can do for them, we will do and what we cannot do, we will pass to the Malaysia Airports Holding Berhad (MAHB). We will try to do our best for them.

“For total immobile passengers, we are working with airbus engineers so that they can be helped. However, it is important that they give us at least a three-hour notice so that we can change the seats for them,” Fernandes said after launching the facilities together with Barrier-Free Environment And Accessible Transport Group (Beat) members, including its coordinator Christine Lee and her assistant Peter Tan.

Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy recently issued a directive to AirAsia and MAHB over complaints from wheelchair-bound passengers that the low-cost carrier had refused to accommodate them on its flights.

On June 15, Beat members had staged a protest at the terminal over the airline’s refusal to accept passengers requiring special assistance.

The group had called on the airline to provide facilities for passengers who were immobile and those with limited mobility and for MAHB to ensure all existing and new airports were equipped with facilities for the disabled.

Fernandes had denied that the airline had turned away wheelchair-bound passengers, saying ground staff would take such passengers to the aircraft and carry them on board.

He had said they were not even charged and there was certainly no discrimination against them as all they had to do was to inform AirAsia in advance of the assistance they needed.

Meanwhile, Fernandes said AirAsia has submitted a request to the government requesting limited access into Singapore, that being two flights a day.

“What is good for Malaysia is not protection. Since AirAsia has come along, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has got a lot better.

“My view on protection is old-fashioned,” he said in response to the statement by MAS managing director Datuk Idris Jala that MAS was against the idea of allowing limited flights by low-cost carriers to Singapore, saying that MAS needed time to get back on its feet.