“Bird strike” remains to be one of the threats that affect day-to-day flight operations of AirAsia Philippines.
AirAsia made this observation as it launched on Thursday a campaign to encourage its employees, guests and other stakeholders to still safety and precautions as the aviation industry resumes normal operations.
To date, the airline has recorded 101 incidents of bird strikes since January 2022, almost 50 percent higher than the recorded incidents in 2021. This month alone, there were 12 incidents happened in Manila, Caticlan, Kalibo, and Cagayan de Oro.
Bird strike occurs when birds, bats, and all flying animals collide with an aircraft, hitting the nose, windshield, leading edges such as wings and tails, or ingested by the engines.
Damage to aircraft ranges from mild to moderate which sometimes results in the grounding of the aircraft.
“This is a growing concern among airlines. Collaborative efforts in partnership with regulatory bodies and industry partners have been going on to address this concern,” said AirAsia chief executive officer Ricky Isla.
“The flight operations, corporate safety, engineering, and quality assurance departments of AirAsia work hand-in-hand to make sure our aircraft go through thorough checks when these incidents happen. Our guests may experience flight disruptions because of this but AirAsia will never compromise safety,” he added.
AirAsia launched the campaign dubbed as “Stronger Together, Safer Together” to encourage its workers and other stakeholders to never be complacent about practicing the culture of safety.
The airline management attributes its resilience amid the COVID-19 pandemic to its adherence to the highest standard of safety espoused across all departments in the organization all the way to its customer touch points.
Its consistent commitment to providing guests with the latest travel information as well as the observance of safety protocols on ground and in flight never waned for the last two years while navigating the challenges brought by the global health crisis.
“Safety across all touch points is our commitment to our guests. Our day-to-day learnings from the pandemic has allowed us to navigate and maintain a high level of safety which helped add confidence amongst our frequent flyers. More than providing affordable and reliable flights, we vow to ensure that not a single safety net is missed, as we value safety as much as we value human lives,” said Isla.
The airline initiated the corporate-wide safety week across its operations centers to remind everyone on the value of safety which is not only limited to the pandemic but also in times of calamities and natural disasters like typhoons, earthquake, and volcanic eruption.
AirAsia, which was recognized as among 2022’s top 10 safest airlines in the world by Airlineratings.com with 7/7 Safety and COVID-19 star ratings, assured its guests of the highest standards in safety compliance in all of its flights.