"P. Gunasegaram's column was interesting. MAS has a serious positioning problem; it should not offer low-cost fare while positioning itself as best airline. Its well-paying passengers will get used to lower fares, and ultimately to the fact that these fares pay for such service. So, the airline will not be able to increase the fares on the segment in future anymore.
Looking back five years, one can deduce which concept failed in Europe and which succeeded. Swiss Airlines tried for years to get business share from low-cost carriers Easyjet and Germanwings. But is this really what it wanted low-paying passengers on expensive routes? It eventually radically stopped this practice and has now become one of the most successful airlines in Europe.
MAS should position itself along its many strengths good service, better flight-times and better airports. Most importantly, MAS is one of the safest airlines on the planet! They have better safety records than Singapore Airlines and Thai or Cathay. Yet no one knows about it. The best kept secret is probably their best asset.
When Europeans or Americans travel through Asia (to Australia or any other destination), they normally look at safety standards. “Safest airline track-record in Asia” would quite likely pull passengers to MAS at least from the destinations they serve (Amsterdam, Rome, Paris, London and Los Angeles.).
MAS should use hard facts. They have it. “Safest airline in the world”. Of course, it needs to back this up. This would work better than using votes from a travel magazine."
Christoph, A Swiss living in KL
The article appeared in The Star on Saturday, 18th June 2011.
"It is very heartening to read the letter which was written by a customer of Malaysia Airlines System (MAS) from foreign country. Nowadays, the airlines industry faces the challenging times, from rising oil prices to the competitions from the newbies. MAS is not either, facing the threat from low-cost airlines AirAsia Berhad in their home market.
MAS share price have been on the downwards for the wrong reasons. They post lost last quarter and have since received negative outlook from research houses. After so many skepticism from the analysts, at least this letter have shown that MAS is not bad at all.
What I want to highlight here is that if we have special advantages, why not show to the others? In this case, Christopher really like MAS because it is the safest among South East Asia airlines companies. This is a point that MAS should take note.
Foot Note: I like both MAS and AirAsia and still wondering where will be my next trip. =)
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