Art Prior from The Muchas Preguntas! Agenda

23 September 2007

OK people, could it be that Low Cost Air Carriers, the LCCs, will die with the LCCs of Asia - demised by a reputation for Low Cost Coffins? The European and American LCC successes may yet be eclipsed by the fatal air crashes in Asia. The latest, One-Two-Go flight OG 269 which crashed on approach to Phuket, Thailand on Sunday 16 September 2007, should be the mother of red flags for all who plan to travel by air and who are looking for cheap flights. Seems a bit cynical to me that four days after this deadly crash, the media dutifully reported, in a clinical factual way, the amounts of compensation per casualty, including funeral cost reimbursement. Have we come to this? Public relations, crisis management, damage limitations focused on how fast the airline can announce a price - sorry, I mean a claim amount - to be paid to the families of the injured and departed? They have probably been reading too many of the wrong books; in other words cost cutting on their contingency planning and failing to invest in emergency preparedness.

What do we see? Answer: Lotsa people wanna fly; lotsa people don't have a lota money; and lotsa other people looking for the cheapest way of getting at that money. Imitation airlines; accountants and finance people masquerading as aviation pioneers perhaps?

What don't we see? Answer: The true cost cutting; the alleged shortcuts in training and maintenance; the history of the aircraft operated by LCCs; and the consequential pressures of escalating regional air traffic on airports and air traffic control systems built for another age. Back at your desk or on your comfortable sofa somewhere in Australia, Europe or the USA, it is exciting to book that trip to exotic places in South East Asia. You are familiar with air travel and its superb safety record in your home environment. You are very concerned to make sure that the hotel and the resort stops you choose are up to your expectations. Web searches and commentaries help you exercise judgment. But when in April of this year the US Federal Aviation Administration [FAA] urged its citizens not to fly on Indonesian domestic or regional carriers, how many vacation planners took note? Then the Europeans brought in their own bans on Indonesian airlines. How many who had already booked a multiple flights trip checked and changed the arrangements? How many were able to read between the lines and realize that if Indonesia's civil aviation status had been downgraded, it would have consequences beyond that country? In aviation, there is always a risk that a culture of low standards, as intolerable as it should be, can creep across borders. That's why we have national and international regulatory and enforcement agencies and agreements. But bad news can arrive in the form of both aircraft and flight personnel who have so far survived a climate where lower standards have not only been tolerated, but have fed the predatory instincts of the would-be LCC start-up gamblers.

Don't take my word for it - just check out the stories on the many websites, showing air accident information and trends in South East Asia since 2004. Take a really good look and then decide what LCC really means to you.

Gotta say this too - don't take the home team for granted, support your safe operators, and keep them in country.

Safe, selective travels!

Arturo - always asking many questions

[Art Prior is a JFG Guest Writer]