I know that being a pilot doesn’t hold nearly as much caché as it used to, but Air Asia is really trying to drive this profession into the ground even further. They need pilots, so what are they doing? In their own words . . . .
So YOU wanna be a pilot? Simple. What do you have to do? Blog. What? Thats [sic] it? Yes, you’re reading it right. Blog.
Scary thought, right? I mean, this seems like a very strange way to find someone to command an airplane full of dozens of people. To be fair, it’s not really as bad as it sounds. The winners of this contest just get their foot in the door for an interview. I assume at that point, something like decent flying skills will actually be required. But I can’t imagine that something this gimmicky is good for public perception of the airline.
What really gets me is the poorly-edited, low sound quality video they’ve included to promote the contest:
What’s the first reason the man with the sun glasses who appears to fly for the airline likes being a pilot? “Because of the girls.” The second reason? “’cause of the bling-bling and because of the money.” I know it’s a joke (sort of), and I’m sure this kind of talk could go on behind the scenes at any airline, but come on, Air Asia. You have passengers watching this video, and that hardly gives off an aura of competency.
The good news is that there are some rules behind this competition, but of course those are buried in the fine print. Yes, you actually do have to meet minimum standards as set by the government of Malaysia and you must have received decent grades in school. And like I said, this just gets you in the door for an interview. So it’s not really as bad as it looks, but it sure does look bad.
Heck, I might fit in with these clowns myself. I’d be tempted to give it a shot except for one slight problem. You have to be proficient in Bahasa Malaysia. And according to the comments, it seems like you have to be a Malaysian national. Well, so much for that.
[Thanks to Bangalore Aviation for the tip]
7 comments on “Air Asia’s Really Odd Promotion to Turn Bloggers into Pilots”
I think this is pretty funny, sort of along the lines of other seemingly offbeat ads by the likes of Southwest, Virgin, People’s Express. Even that Ryan Air “charging for the potty” thing recently was effective in that it got free press. In fact, I’m not sure if I had even heard of Air Asia before. That aside, this ad may be more relevant/appropriate and/or viewed from a different cultural perspective when run overseas. Okay…I’m off to be an Air Asia pilot!
Yikes. This is scary.
This is what you call thinking out of the box. Air Asia is a very innovative airline.
“That aside, this ad may be more relevant/appropriate and/or viewed from a different cultural perspective when run overseas.”
Riiiiiiiiiight………..
Re Jay: “Riiiiiiiiiight………..”
I’m being serious. Just like how there is “British humour” compared to “American humor”. Sometimes people read and view things differently in different countries. Whenever I travel overseas, I always find it funny to watch their commercials. Even though they maybe in English, the words are used differently, the scenes often seem that they wouldn’t really “work” in the States. So while we may find their ads quirky, maybe offensive, maybe weird…it’s just often funny to watch them anyway, since we are looking through our lens. Take that Nationwide commercial with the old lady hitting the young man with her purse. Or the old Wendy’s commercial – “Where’s the beef?”. I don’t think lots of people from overseas might think, ‘wow, older Americans are really grumpy and violent.”
That is HILARIOUS!!! Looks like the editors have been watching too much MTV. That first few pilots look like they are eleventeen.
This is quite disturbing! Would you trust these guys to fly your plane? I think they need to put more effort into customer service instead of wasting time on videos like this.