TWO blonde bombshells from Australia could be the best thing to happen to budget carrier AirAsia X.
Queensland’s Chloe Markham and Hayley Austin are the first Aussie cabin crew hired by the airline in an effort to broaden its appeal to travellers.
The young women will work predominantly on flights between Kuala Lumpur and the Australian ports of Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, but also on Asian routes.
AirAsia X CEO Benyamin Ismail said more Aussie cabin crew would join Chloe and Hayley in the near future.
“Our guests from around the world are pleased to see Australians among our crew members who mostly hail from Asia,” said Mr Ismail.
“They receive a lot of compliments from all our passengers and obviously Australians feel right at home with them on board.”
To date the flight attendants have enjoyed “rock star” treatment from passengers enamoured by their blonde hair and fair skin.
Ms Austin said some of the passengers of Hangzhou and Taipei flights had filmed her, especially during safety demonstrations.
“They snapchat pictures of me because they haven’t seen Australians working on the flights before,” she said.
“Passengers are usually used to seeing crew from Asian countries on AirAsia flights.
“Even some of the other crew try to mimic our accents.”
Ms Markham was also surprised by the attention she was getting.
“I do get some surprised looks, and I do receive quite a bit of attention,” she said.
“When I’m in the AirAsia uniform going through airports, I’ll often be approached by people wanting a photograph with me.”
Her interest in aviation began as a child, watching her father work across Australia in the industry.
“I guess you could say aviation is in my blood,” Ms Markham said.
Ms Austin decided she wanted to work for an Asian airline after a school trip to Japan.
“I watched the flight attendants working on the aircraft and thought from that moment on that I’d like to be a flight attendant for an Asian airline,” she said.
AirAsia X is expected to add new routes down under next year, including direct flights between Brisbane and KL and from a regional centre like Townsville.
The Brisbane service would fill a void in the market created by Malaysia Airlines’ withdrawal last year.
Mr Ismail has also previously raised the prospect of flights out of Avalon and Canberra.
Article taken from News.com.au
