Netizens have started gathering names in a campaign to pressure airline rating company Skytrax to drop all-time award favourite AirAsia from its list of candidates in its upcoming vote, following a controversy in which a flight attendant was forced to prostrate herself before a passenger.
Fernandes: Wants to apologise
Their campaign began on Friday via change.org, an internet-based channel that helps people open issues for debate.
AirAsia has come under fire for not doing enough to help its flight attendant.
The petition follows an incident in which the flight attendant had to prostrate herself in apology to a disabled girl after her mother accused the crew member of using inappropriate words to offer help to her daughter.
The campaigners say that AirAsia is "causing a fresh worry over [travel] safety" and "ignoring basic rights" of its staff, according to the change.org website.
According to the petition, the company has not carried out any disciplinary measures against its staff who reportedly told the attendant to prostrate against her will.
The staff are accused of mishandling the conflict with the passenger while the mother has been faulted for not telling flight attendants about her daughter's health in advance.
On the Phuket-Bangkok flight, the passenger's daughter, who is autistic, was noticed by the flight attendant after her body began shaking, according to media reports.
She suddenly asked what she could do to help, but the mother interpreted her question as dishonouring her daughter and she later unleashed her dissatisfaction on Facebook on Aug 28.
She also filed a complaint with the company, demanding an apology from the flight attendant.
The mother reportedly vowed to issue a complaint to an international human rights agency if the company failed to respond to her.
There was a subsequent meeting to settle the conflict, which ended with the attendant's controversial method of apology.
Campaigners say the flight attendant had a right to ask the daughter whether she was okay to ensure there would not be any problems for other passengers while in flight.
The campaigners plan to gather up to 39,500 names, about 100 times more than what was asked for by Skytrax to review AirAsia.
AirAsia won the World's Best Low-Cost Airline from London-based Skytrax this year. It was also named the World's Best Low-Cost Airline for the 8th consecutive year.
Tony Fernandes, chief executive of AirAsia Group, and Tassapon Bijleveld, chief executive officer of Thai AirAsia, are aware of the incident and plan to meet the flight attendant and her family in Songkhla's Hat Yai district on Friday to "extend our genuine apologies".
However, their meeting was cancelled after the family said it was "not convenient" for them to meet the businessmen at the appointed time.
Mr Tassapon insisted the company did not order the flight attendant to prostrate before the passenger.
She made a "sacrifice" to comply with the mother's demand to calm the woman down and prevent the complaint from escalating, Mr Tassapon added.