Air Asia has issued a very public mea culpa after footage of baggage handlers roughly tossing bicycles aside went viral. Unfortunately, sitting directly above where the bags come out were the owners of said bikes and they were not pleased.
Facebook user Fen Lim had just flown into KLIA2 from Kaoshiun, Taiwan, and later posted the results of the rough handlers: broken bicycle parts on her bike.
No word on that of her fellow cyclists who were traveling with her, but the bags were certainly treated like a bag of bricks.
After her post went viral with nearly 30,000 shares the company responded within 24 hours, Air Asia CEO Riad Asmat posted a video to their Facebook account yesterday apologizing.
“As a cyclist myself, I was pretty disturbed when I saw the actions of our staff. Rest assured, we’ve taken action. We are looking into the matter very seriously and stern action will be taken accordingly.
“I hope we will continue to improve ourselves. Attention has been put into this particular example,” he said.
He then said that as a gesture of goodwill, all bicycles would fly free for the month of April on Air Asia flights. Now every bike can fly!
Air Asia Group CEO Tony Fernandes also posted a Facebook statement saying that he was disappointed in his “ramp boys and girls,” and that they would “take the heat … [and] get better.”
Cool – so maybe scenes like this that happen every time I fly to Bali can stop?
Your tickets might be cheap, but I can’t afford a new bag every time. K THX BYE!
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