Dennis Yap Photography
Recently there seemed to be an increase in overseas pre-wedding enquiry after AirAsia launched its routes to Australia. Last month Eric & Esther had their pre-wedding in Perth and Adam Ong and I had this opportunity to shoot in this magnificent scene filled with yellow flowers! It was amazing and I almost cried with this scene. What a touching moment.

Now if you are planning your wedding, you will be spoilt for choice with all these crazy fares to Australia and beyond, be it for destination weddings for overseas pre-wedding photo shoots. It's not that expensive to be glam now with AirAsia.

The best time to have pre-wedding shots in Australia are during Spring and Fall. For those who have not experienced or thought of an overseas pre-wedding, try re-think because of the cheap fares available now. :)

www.airasia.com makes it possible. What else are you waiting for? Free seats galore and cheap fares for long haul flights in store!

To visit more picture, please go to http://www.dennisyapphoto.com

Our CEO would like to say a job well done during the Padang crisis. Special thanks from the Australian High Commissioner of Kuala Lumpur to our staff, Danny Ng Choong Wai, Rakesh Subramaniam, Zulfana Dewi, Panbala Nair and Adlah Sabri bin Zulkifli for great support on the ground during the incident. Kudos and thanks for upholding the values of All Stars!

We are proud of you and we insert the copy of the letter from the Australian High Commissioner of Kuala Lumpur. Let us all be inspired to always strive to got the extra mile and do what we can always in view of excellence.

All Stars always! All for One, One for All!

Rare it is that I have enough strength to blog after a long flight.

As we launched our historical London flight this morning, 10 of my colleagues and I were preparing for our return to KUL. We were in Perth.

Having flown in on a late night flight two nights before, we arrived in time to catch the first rays of sunlight as we made our way to the hotel. It was such a bumpy ride that none of my attempts to photograph the deep colours of the horizon qualified to pass as a photo. (they went right into my PC's recycling bin though)

Right after we checked in, we still had so much energy in us that we all posed for a group photo! Presenting to you, ladies and gentlemen, my fun and loving set of night owls to Perth! (Mind you, this picture was taken at 0700hrs, after our 6 hours flight.)

Standing R-L : the sweet FA Joyce, hilarious Capt Zain, perky FA Nadiah, the quiet-but-nice FO Amirul, and myself
Seated R-L: the fun-loving SFA Hasniman, kind-hearted SFA-in-charge Ezlyanty, funny FA Faiz, soft-spoken FA Sharizah, bubbly FA Laema, and cheerful FA Ruzanna.

It is flying with people like them that provides half the fun for my job. We all came from different backgrounds but the interest we have to serve makes us the AirAsia team. And in my opinion, a great team we made!

Our lady-in-charge, Senior Flight Attendant Ezlyanty, was one of the first few crews selected to progress onto the A320 fleet when it first came 3 years ago. I have always thought that she has one of the sweetest smiles. If you see her on your next flight, you can be sure that you will see that heart-warming smile of hers!

Capt Zain, on the other hand...he looks fierce! Hahah...but he is just the opposite. When making our way to the hotel from the airport, all of us were joking and laughing in the van. Captain was the main one fuelling us with rounds after rounds of outburst! Capt Zain carries with him many years of flying experiences, and flying with a fatherly figure like him always assured me of a good flight.

Our First Officer Amirul was the pilot flying us back to KUL. And he got us back ONE hour ahead of the scheduled time!

Thanks to this team, the flight was smooth and easy. All our guests on board were happy. One family particularly appeared to be very happy to chat with SFA Hasniman. Well, who wouldn't? He's funny, friendly and makes you feel at ease almost at once!

The rest of the team? Well, I would call us a typical AirAsia team. So much of laughter to go around. Few of the girls were even singing in the galley!

So what if that was a 6 hours flight? Time passes when you are having fun!

The aircraft we flew home in...9M-XXA, the first of our brand-new A330-300s!

SFA Ezlyanty's team. Picture courtesy of our FO, Amirul!

How a brand defines itself in the broader mainstream market can differ slightly from how it presents itself in a more Niche (ie. not mainstream) or smaller target markets. AirAsia X has demonstrated this through its alignment with a number of niche markets. From outdoor music festivals to the surfing culture, the brand can be seen as granting access to the Asian (and beyond) community to some of the best of what Australia has to offer. And offering the target market the opportunity to experience the brand to their favourite (or dream holiday) destinations.

The Gold Coast can be described as “Surf, Sand and FUN’, well nothing is more ‘funner’ than surfing in the pristine waves off the coast with the backdrop of the Surfers Paradise skyline, immersed in the pristine blue waters of the Pacific Ocean.
As an avid surfer and local on the Gold Coast the opportunity to bring the AirAsia X brand to the surfing community was an easy one and with a CEO who has a passion for extreme sports, the ‘sell’ to align the brand with a fast growing and exciting global sport was an easy one.
But first one has to ask the question why? What’s the value in targeting a smaller Niche market? How does it align with an airline brand? And why choose the Niche over others?
In terms of value and alignment the fit is easy for AirAsia X. It’s a young and hip brand, it is fun and funky and at the forefront of its category. It has a heritage from its parent AirAsia that is focussed on Value, Quality and a Challenger mentality. All these attributes add up to a fast moving and functional brand equity which, if you attribute to any sport, fits well with a surfing culture and the people who live in that culture.

How do you align with that culture? It’s easy. Fish where the fish are. Niche markets are sometimes hard to target but the surfer like to read surfing magazines. (see below some advertising examples appearing in Australian surfing magazines).

The magazine is the highest circulating in the country and the ads play on the surfing culture and what they like. They are also informative outlining the network that AirAsia offers to selected surfing destinations (did you know you can surf in China?) as well as value based messaged around excess baggage charges.

It also helps to network... here is a picture of our AirAsia X CEO with 2 times World Surfing Champion Stephanie Gilmore. (oh and the bloke on the right is Richard Branson) Azran has been surfing now for 12 months and from all accounts can hold his own in the waves. He is also very keen on Jetski’s and had the opportunity to join myself and a mutual friend on a day out on the ski’s where we saw a pod of 40 Dolphins, a shark, some turtles and a few large stingrays. As well as playing in the waves, jumping and surfing on very powerful Yamaha Waverunners designed to have fun and enjoy the ocean.

Azran, Stephanie and Richard Branson

Getting the message out there is not just about running ads in magazines, or hanging with the pro’s. A small sponsorship deal with a well know surfing event on the Gold Coast offered the brand the opportunity to really get to the grass roots of the surfing culture. The MP Classic run by Rip Curl (a global surf brand and friends of AirAsia X) is an annual surf event that draws the best of the junior surfers who are knocking on the door of the pro circuit. They are young and keen to do well and the media loves this kind of enthusiasm.

As part of the surfing event over the weekend AirAsia X took over the beach with banners and buntings in front of a huge crowd and with great waves on offer the surfers put on a solid show for all to enjoy. All of the contest surfers wore the AirAsia X brand on their fronts and backs of their contest tops, and as well as surfing for prize money also had the chance to win a couple of tickets up to KL on AirAsia X.

We also managed to affix some banners on the back of our jetski’s and tow them into the line up which drew a lot of comments about how cool it looked from people both on the beach and surfers in the water alike.

Azran, Darren (me) and John Nielson

To experience this kind of fun and really get to know what the locals like to do on the gold coast, jump a flight on AirAsia X and come on down to the Gold Coast where you can take surfing (and jetski ) lessons or simply sit on the beach and watch the action.

Who know you may even see Azran ripping along on a wave with a huge smile on his face...

Hi Everyone!!!

AirAsia X really made my wish come true when it offers flight to Gold Coast. It was a memorable experience with its friendly cabin crews and smooth ride for 8 hours of flying.

As I still remember until today, it was a windy and breezy night when I arrived at Coongalatta Airport.

Stayed at ocean view room at Mantra Legend Hotel and it was one block away from the beach. Oh… how lucky I am to be there.

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