Budget airlines AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines (MAS) have long been competing for the attention and business from avid Malaysian travellers.

So it is not surprising for AirAsia to capitalise on the recent culinary fiasco the national carrier suffered over the seemingly tragic quality of nasi lemak served on board.

AirAsia grabbed the opportunity by coming out with a cheeky advertisement to promote its own version of the highly popular and famous Malaysian meal.

“Our nasi lemak is COMPLETE!” screams the advertisement highlighting AirAsia’s breakfast combos, which is now being circulated online by amused netizens.

Accompanied by a large image of its Pak Nasser nasi lemak, it further boasts that the dish is served with special chili sambal, chicken rendang, fried anchovies with groundnuts, and a boiled egg.

“ Sejuklah di udara kalau telanjang (It's cold up in the sky if naked),” the advertisement reads, in obvious reference to the term used by celebrity Chef Wan to describe MAS’ nasi lemak, as it was devoid of any nuts, anchovies or even sliced cucumbers.

Chef Wan, whose full name is Redzuawan Ismail, had uploaded on social site Instagram a picture of the plain nasi lemak ( below ) he had when on an internationally-bound MAS economy flight on Jan 29, complaining it was “ telanjang (nude)”.

In response, MAS promised to look into the matter and improve the quality of food served on board.

However, AirAsia denied that its advertisement was meant to insult any party, telling Astro Awani that it was only meant to “remind” passengers of the delicious nasi lemak available on its flights.

Meanwhile, the news site also reported that Chef Wan had labelled the AirAsia advertisement as part of a “healthy competition” between the two industry players.