Why I Decided Not to Fly Orient Thai 1-2-GO UPDATE

  Phuket, Thailand
Sunday, September 16, 2007

Here's an update to this story! Fly 1-2-Go has been grounded for safety issues. Read the story below for more info.

http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,26058,24058240-5014090,00.html

In light of the tragedy that took place last week on Sept. 16th, I wanted to make a post about flying in Thailand. My condolences go out to the families of the 89 people who lost their lives on flight OG269.

One-Two-Go Tires

Although I told any and everyone that I showed this picture to, I didn't really do anything else to warn other travelers about One-Two-Go. Immediately after the crash, I read posts by idiots around the world commenting about the safety of flying in Thailand. Alright ya, they've had some experience with Thailand (on a 2 week sex tour, took a flight from Nana Plaza to Patong and back to Patpong) and claim to know everything there is to know about the dangers of flying in this country. I've been here over a year and taken more than a 20 flights into and out of Thailand and I can barely claim to know anything more than my own experiences with flying in Thailand. I've taken flights on Air Asia, One-Two-Go and Nok Air. By far and away, I consider Air Asia to be the best budget carrier in all of Asia not only in price, but also for safety. A former Time Warner executive, Tony Fernandes, bought the airline in 2002 for 1RM (.25) and turned the company around to make it one of the most profitable airlines in Asia. Since that time, they've only had 1 minor incident where a plane slid off the runway in heavy rain and 2 passengers suffered minor injuries. They are like the Southwest Airlines of Asia except instead of all 737s, they have a brand new fleet of mostly A320s and 737s. In fact, I just learned that he modeled his airline on Ireland's Ryanair which based their business model on SWA. Their planes all look to be in perfect condition and well maintained inside and out. One-Two-Go on the other hand is not so good with their maintenance or equipment inside or out. I took these pictures on April 17th, 2007 when I decided that this would be the last time I'd fly with One-Two-Go. The picture is a bit blurry because of the distance, lighting and the quick snap shot that I took, but you can still clearly see the tire is almost completely bald. I figure checking airline safety and maintenance is similar to checking out a restaurant for cleanliness. If the areas you can see ie tables, plates, silverware and bathroom are dirty, what are the conditions of the kitchen and the areas that you can't see like? Well I can clearly see that the planes are not freshly painted like the Air Asia planes and the tires, which I consider to be a very important safety feature, are bald, what are the areas that I can't see like? I can tell you this. Unless this crash wakes up One-Two-Go and they do a serious revamp of their airline, I'm not eating there again! I don't have much to say about Nok Air except that they look pretty decent and the plane that I flew on had brand new leather seats and a great paint job that makes the plane look like a comic strip. Anyway, that's my 2 cents. (which by the way is about the amount, 1THB, that Air Asia is charging me to fly to Macau next month) Unfortunately, the taxes and surcharges come to about $44USD, but you can't beat that price for a 3 hour flight with a stick!