Aviation expert warns against budget airlines
We all want to save as much money as possible on air fares, but one aviation expert is warning against travellers cutting costs on their plane tickets. The alert comes just days after a Malaysia-bound AirAsia flight was forced to turn back to Perth due to a technical issue.
“Australians regrettably think with their pocket and not their head,” aviation expert and chairman of Strategic Aviation Solutions, Neil Hansford, told the ABC. “Because if you go to the trouble of working out whether a carrier’s got a record or not you would look at AirAsia and you would say, ‘Well why would I fly with that carrier who can't get seven stars?' If the difference in the fare was $200, is my life worth $200?"
Despite the plane having landed safely back on solid ground, Hansford believes the outcome could have been very different – especially given the lack of professionalism from the pilot.
“The pilot’s responsibility is to make all of the passengers feel comfortable and let them know that he’s in command,” he explained. “Now in asking people to pray, that’s almost saying that he’s passing the responsibility to some other person that's not on the plane.”
Those who were on the affected flight were flown to Kuala Lumpur on a replacement plane last night. AirAsia are yet to offer an explanation into what caused the near-tragedy.
Do you fly with budget airlines? Will the latest incident encourage you to rethink those cheaper flights? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
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