During an AirAsia flight from Taipei to Kuala Lumpur (KL) on Monday (20 Feb), a passenger noticed yellow tape on the seats’ armrests.
He took to Facebook to share about it, saying that he felt embarrassed that the planes seemed to be “held together with tape”.
Source: Facebook
After the post went viral, the airline clarified in a statement that the tape on the armrests were “cosmetic cabin repairs”.
The tape is apparently only a “temporary measure” due to the current shortage of spare parts, reported Channel NewsAsia (CNA).
In the Facebook post on Monday (20 Feb), the passenger shared that he took the AirAsia X D7 379 flight from Taipei to KL that day.
When he got on the plane, he couldn’t help but notice the yellow tape on some of the seats’ armrests.
Source: Facebook
His pictures showed multiple rows of seats with the yellow tape.
Source: Facebook
The passenger shared in the comments section that only the business class was not affected by the yellow tape.
He felt “malu” or embarrassed about the situation that made it seem as if the plane was held together by tape, especially since it was an international flight.
“Foreigners must be thinking they are going to a very backward country,” he quipped.
The Facebook post later went viral, garnering over 3,000 shares and 1,000 comments.
Speaking to CNA, AirAsia X’s head of engineering Mr Alvin Tan said that they had used the yellow vinyl tape due to a shortage of spare parts that affected the airline’s operations.
He emphasised that it was not a safety issue.
Mr Tan elaborated that the specific vinyl tape is a common tool for cosmetic cabin repairs.
The tape was apparently only a “temporary measure” to prevent flight disruptions as the airline prioritised getting passengers to their destinations in a safe and timely manner.
He shared that AirAsia had placed orders for spare parts back in Aug 2022.
The parts arrived last week and repair works are now ongoing progressively to fix all the arm caps.
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Featured image adapted from Facebook.
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