SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): AirAsia has posted videos of its staff speaking in Mandarin, days after a clip of one passenger scolding a crew member for not speaking the language went viral on social media.
The first video on April 23 featured AirAsia ground staff using Mandarin to remind passengers to arrive three hours before departure time for an international flight and two hours before a domestic flight. The video has since garnered 1.5 million views, more than 100,000 likes and more than a thousand comments.
The second video, posted a day later on April 24, came with the caption “Any working adults keen to learn Mandarin online? We’re thinking of learning too.” It started with a pilot saying AirAsia cabin crew’s Mandarin skills will be tested.
The 42-second video then showed the airline’s crew speaking phrases including “check-in”, “world’s best low-cost airline for the 16th consecutive year” and “more than 150 destinations” in Mandarin.
At the end of the video, the pilot invited netizens to comment on whose Mandarin was the most fluent. The video has since garnered more than 110,000 views, 11,000 likes and more than 2,000 shares.
Netizens responding to the videos mostly praised the airline’s social media marketing team for its response to the situation, while some also raised concern for the flight attendants who were scolded by the passenger.
AirAsia’s videos come on the back of a viral incident on April 22, in which a passenger on a flight from Chongqing to Kuala Lumpur scolded the airline’s crew for not communicating with her in Mandarin.
The woman alleged that another passenger had taken a video of her while she was talking on the phone. A flight attendant had approached her and attempted to communicate with her in English, which prompted the passenger to question why he spoke to her in English.
In the video, the passenger can be heard asking: “As a flight attendant on an international airline, if he cannot even speak the most basic Mandarin, why is he working in the service industry?”
She also demanded compensation from the airline, claiming that she “could not leave because of you” while pointing to the crew member.
Citing AirAsia’s response, Malaysian news outlet New Straits Times reported that the incident happened on flight D7809 before departure from Chongqing in south-western China.
The aircraft was forced to return to the bay after the passenger failed to comply with instructions from the crew.
According to the report, local authorities were called onto the aircraft and the passenger was removed from the flight for safety reasons. The plane was delayed by over one hour, and arrived safely at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. -- The Straits Times/Asia News Network
