Transmenu powered by JoomlArt.com - Mambo Joomla Professional Templates Club

The e-mail, titled “Message from AirAsia Staff: KLIA-East — the Rakyat’s Terminal”, urges customers to write letters to the media and respond to conversations in the online media, “especially blogs”, reflecting how concerned Air Asia is with the influence of Internet chatter.

The e-mail ends by asking them to voice their support for KLIA-East to their elected representatives.

Following the announcement of the KLIA-East project, a number of blogs have condemned the proposal.

Many of the reader comments posted on The Malaysian Insider were also against the Labu terminal.

But Air Asia is responding to the Internet with the Internet and has launched a campaign to counter criticisms via its own blog and microsite and urges customers to visit the links provided in the e-mail.

“We appreciate the fact that almost everyone who has voiced their view agrees that AirAsia needs a new terminal,” reads the e-mail. “For us, the staff of the airline, the new terminal is very much a matter of the company’s survival given the number of new aircraft joining our ranks — at least two are being delivered every month — and the growth in passengers, estimated to reach 60 million in 2013.”

Visitors to the microsite will be greeted with a welcome note from Datuk Tony Fernandes, or just Tony, as he signs off in the letter, eschewing the use of his last name.

“We at AirAsia have been following the debate closely,” writes Fernandes in the welcome note. “It’s clear that there are a variety of opinions and I thought it be helpful to address some of these concerns on our own website.”

He goes on to point out that existing cramped and crowded LCCT are operated by Malaysia Airports Bhd and the new terminal, which Air Asia intends to operate, is a “matter of life and death.”

Critics of the project however, have not been convinced by reasons given by Air Asia.

They contend that KLIA was designed for 100 million passengers and that it would be duplication of resources to have two sets of runways and runway control towers just kilometres apart.

They are also sore that Air Asia is seen to be getting its way almost every time when it deals with the government. And while Air Asia has assured the public that only private funds would be used, critics worry that the highways and train line extensions needed would be built with public funds.

Fernandes, on the other hand, countered in a media briefing last week that if they got their way, they would still be operating out of Subang airport and gotten the Kuala Lumpur to Singapore route much earlier.

He also says that the proposed new LCCT by Malaysia Airports is at a site that has soil conditions that is too marshy.

He also contends that by operating its own airport, it would be able to lower costs, airfares and have a better chance at growing to become the second largest airline in Asia.