AirAsia Celebrates 1st ASEAN Graduation

AirAsia held its first ever Asean Crew Complement Graduation ceremony at AirAsia Academy’s multi-purpose hall on Thursday, which saw 68 trainees proudly graduating as the first group of ‘Asean’ flight attendants.

This graduation ceremony marked a historical moment for the airline, where for the first time it presented the first batch of an all-Asean flight attendant graduates.

Of the 68 graduating flight attendants, 27 were Malaysians, 22 Thais, 14 Myanmarese, 3 Indonesians and 2 Singaporeans.

Dato’ Kamarudin Meranun, Deputy Group CEO said, “While other airlines are cutting capacity and retrenching staff, AirAsia continues to grow and keeps on hiring. It is indeed our dream to have an all-Asean crew flying on one same flight. As an Asean airline, an all-Asean crew is very important as it reflects our passion in projecting the beautiful image of Asean to the world.

“It will also provide a good opportunity for the flight attendants to know more about other cultures, which in turn make them more hospitable to our guests and be sensitive to the needs of different people with different cultural backgrounds. We believe that each and every one of our guests is unique, hence such quality in our FAs will ensure the delivery of superior services and greatest flying experience,” he added.

The ceremony also celebrated the graduation of 29 Guest Services trainees (from Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand) and 22 Ramp Agent trainees (Malaysia).

The AirAsia Academy, located barely 2 kilometres from the Low Cost Carrier Terminal where AirAsia headquarters is located, was set up in 2005 with the objective of meeting the human capital requirements of the rapidly growing airline.

AirAsia has grown its aircraft fleet from just 2 in 2001 to 76 today, while its staff strength grew from 200 to over 6,000 presently. Apart from Kuala Lumpur as its main hub, AirAsia’s other major hubs are Bangkok and Jakarta.

AirAsia Academy provides initial and recurrent training courses for pilots, flight attendants, guest services agents, ramp agents and engineering, as well as an induction programme for all new AirAsia employees.

The Academy is equipped with 6 flight simulators comprising 4 Airbus A320s, 1 Airbus A330 and 1 Boeing 737 which are run and maintained by CAE.

See other recent news regarding: Travel News Asia, AirAsia, Pilots, Cabin Crew