AirAsia’s media tour didn’t go according to plan

Dear readers,

AirAsia made a big splash when it announced that it would buy Gojek’s Thailand business to spark its super-app ambitions.

That kick-started a media blitz in which Tony Fernandes made the rounds to give interviews to tech outlets – us included.

But something unexpected happened after. A video showing a top AirAsia executive berating a staff member during a town hall session got leaked and went viral, igniting a public firestorm.

This happened while we were in the midst of writing up our interview with him.

AirAsia was roundly condemned after the video spread on social media. The ensuing anger, however, drowned out questions that needed to be asked: What is the company’s culture really like? Is it really as toxic as some people have made it out to be?

We tried to find out by speaking to nine current and ex-employees, some of whom held senior roles at the airline.

A polarizing picture emerged: AirAsia is progressive in how it enabled many minorities to rise up to roles that they would never get elsewhere. But it’s also regressive in how the behavior depicted in the video is a common occurrence.

What happened to a pilot in India who highlighted safety violations at the budget carrier is worth highlighting. After sacking him, the airline also sued him to try and shut him up, but it failed. The company, however, insists it has a whistleblower policy in place.

In the end, we published two stories: our interview with Fernandes, where he defended his super-app strategy, and our reporting on whether AirAsia’s work culture is toxic.

Are you a current or former AirAsia staff member? We’d certainly love to hear what you think.

That controversy wasn’t the only thing that kept us busy. We ran the final installment of our series on popular blockchain-based game Axie Infinity – this time looking at three problems with the game – and created this visual timeline of Bukalapak history in light of its public listing.

Jumping to ecommerce, we looked at how Brazil could potentially become Southeast Asia ecommerce giant Shopee’s largest market, beating even Indonesia. We’ve also updated our landscape map of Vietnam’s ecommerce scene.