In Reply to: Tell me a business who can keep it's posted by Nicno on Monday, 19. March 2007 at 18:24 Bali Time:
It was not the fault of terrorism per se; it was customers of one or two high profile markets deciding to stay at home, that killed AP - at least that was one of most probably other reasons.
AP had put all its eggs in just a few baskets (markets), markets obviously very sensitive to the 2005 events in the aftermath of those in 2002.
Other nationalities, like the European tourists, did not feel as reluctant to travel to Bali despite serious losses of lives in the first tragedy, in 2002. But, alas, those markets did not use AP as their preferred carrier.
And if I am not mistaken - do correct me if I am wrong - one travel agent was very upset about the rumours about AP being on the brink of folding, and even called the rumours slanderous while adamantly defending AP.
We, the tourists, are not experts on airline ticketing so thus we have to trust our various agents. We are not even allowed to do the ticketing as such but have to go through official channels.
Some rumours cannot be taken lightly and if more people had listened to and checked what was behind at least some of those rumours, I am sure a lot less Bali-bounds would have lost holiday savings and reservations.
At times the travel industry is like the stock market when it comes to taking risks. Sometimes people win, sometimes people lose.
Where there is smoke, there is normally fire. But you cannot turn back time, can you?
Staying with the larger operators is almost always safer. Somehow some people want a Rolls Royce for the price of a Kijang. That hardly ever works. So if AP returns on the market - support the airline as you should support any airline that take us to the destination of our dreams, i.e. Bali.