The National Union of Flight Attendants (Nufam) is surprised that a Muslim MP, Ghapur Salleh, has given ideas to charge for alcoholic beverages on MAS flights.

Its already not right for him as a Muslim to encourage such a matter as this subject is a highly sensitive matter especially to those Muslim workers in MAS.

Many of the Muslim crew and staffers have previously objected to the serving of alcohol in MAS and this matter was raised to the government.

This issue was raised because the majority of cabin crew were Muslims in MAS.

Unlike AirAsia as being suggested by MP Ghapur, that charges for their drinks on flight, you can’t compare apple and oranges. MAS is a full-fledged service airline.

So it will not be right for MAS to charge anything extra to their passengers.

Instead, there should be suggestions to discourage or perhaps exclude the alcohol list from MAS’ menu as these beverages were listed along with the halal food.

We would like to ask if the MP is aware of the existing and conflicting issues on MAS menu on which the ‘halal’ word appears?

Nufam has also raised issues where alcohol are being served by the Muslim crew members during the Ramadan month.

There is a serious need to review this matter since now the MP himself has raise this matter in Parliament.

There is a need to create more awareness on excessive drinking of alcohol during flight as it can cause serious medical problems like heart attack and deep vein thrombosis (DVT).

If there is a need to do away with alcohol on flight, then these will be the main subjects to raise in Parliament. The policy-makers must be serious in tackling these legacy issues.

They will need to tackle this problem once and for all since many people have now raised this matter in open for the last few years.

Serving of alcohol will not necessarily mean the airline could rake in profits from selling alcohol as the marketing of the airline routes and ticket sales should be focussed upon.

There are studies shown on the declining trend of passengers consuming alcohol these days on flight especially on Asia flights.

People who travel on flight are more health-concious as they would prefer to drink more water when they travel. Many passengers nowadays watch what they eat and drink during flight.

So we should instead encourage healthy travelling instead, which can help prevent dehydration of body when we travel.

If the airline is serious on wanting to charge for anything, then they should instead charge for drinking water as passengers will need to consume more water on flight.

Drinking of alcohol on flights could also lead to problems for travellers and crew members who often need to cope with drunk passengers. The issue of safety relates to alcohol as many cases have been reported over abusive passengers who drink excessively and become aggresive. Female crew members have also complained of being harassed by drunk and rowdy passengers.

So, if there is a serious need to implement new policies on the airline, then let’s be sincere to tackle these issues once and for all. If there is a need to provide suggestions to MAS or any other airline, let it be more beneficial for everyone.

After all many of us are tired of hearing issues being raised about the airlines while the problems remain the same.