It tickles me when Tony Fernandez, AirAsia CEO, was so worked up when MAS announced that it could soon launch its own low-budget carrier. Why not? Any competition is good competition. If Air Asia is as strong as hyped by the media, it should not fear any competition at all, especially from MAS.

I'm not a MAS fan but I sincerely feel that the national carrier should start a budget airliner to compete with AirAsia and other budget carriers in the region to tap the growing demand of budget travel. The pie is big enough for both to share, just look at the telcos.

I believe MAS could do very well if it starts its own budget airline soon because it has everything ready - the experienced staff, enough airplanes, the money and whatever it takes to deploy the service quickly and efficiently. I wonder what took them so long to realise the huge potential in budget air travel especially when the price of oil is on the increase.

Come to think of it, a lot of reduction on the ticket price can be made if the national carrier flies with only two flight attendants and no drinks in all of its domestic flights. I may be a layman in airline operations but I have my common sense.

Budget travellers care about nothing else but reaching their destinations safely on time rather than comfort. So if MAS cuts back a little on comfort which in turn reduces ticket prices, I bet AirAsia would take its customers seriously for once.

From my experience on travelling with AirAsia, I think the company needs a competitor like MAS to improve its hopelessly poor service. Rarely do the planes takes off on time and the some of the flight and ground crew can't even speak English correctly, which is very embarrassing.

The flight attendants attire are also in need of help. As an Asian airline, I see the lack of modesty in their dressing. Air Asia needs a lot of work to be a respected airline in the region.

But the most annoying part about AirAsia is the endless delays. I've travelled in Europe on Easyjet and Ryan Air before and there were delays. But, once on board the crew (the captain and the attendants) explained and apologised for the delay.

Though many passengers were furious and angry, at least they were not kept in the dark about the flight, which offers some comfort for a wary traveller. They even offered free drinks to everyone and hoped that the passengers would continue to use their airline in future. It wasn't much but it soothed the nerves.

AirAsia's delays, from my understanding, are due to the limited number of planes that it has and the situation is said to improve once new airplanes arrive by the end of the year. I do hope it does.

Another reason for the delays, I think, is because AirAsia is too eager to offer new destinations without having enough planes to cater for all of its destinations - resulting in frequent delays and higher downtime than normal.

Maybe things will change soon with the arrival of new planes by year end and the company's IPO in September. But for a budget traveller like myself, I'd pay more just to get where I need to be on time rather than wait around wasting time at the airport. Doesn't matter whether it is MAS, Air Asia or others. Time is money.

Lastly, I believe MAS and Air Asia should take a look at how the telcos are competing today and benefit from their experience.