You may be forgiven for mistaken this airline as an Irish airline. After all, “Rayani Air” does sound like “Ryanair”, an Irish low-cost airline founded in 1985 and has since grown to become the largest European airline, operating over 300 Boeing 737-800 aircraft serving 31 countries in Europe, Africa and Middle East.
Perhaps inspired by Irish businessman Tony Ryan (after whom the company is named), founders Ravi Alagendrran and his wife Karthiyani Govindan could have taken the shortcut by calling (or rather copying) their new airline Rayani Air. Coincidently, Rayani could be formed from the name of both founders – Ravi and Karthiyani.
But isn’t Malaysia too crowded for another low-cost airline player considering AirAsia, Firefly and Malindo Air are already fighting tooth and nail from a small pool of 30 million populations? Apparently, the Tony Fernandes wannabes clarify it’s not a budget airline but a full service airline similar to Malaysian Airlines.
Both Ravi and Karthiyani think they have found a secret weapon – claiming their new airline as the country’s first “Shariah-compliant or Halal” airline. Launched on December 20, 2015, Rayani Air had hired 350 staffs, including 8 pilots and 50 cabin crew, to fly to 3 destinations with their 2 Boeing 737-400 aircrafts purchased from Neptune Air Limited.
Rayani Air website shows very little information except flights booking for KL International Airport 2, Langkawi and Kota Bharu. Their social media links are not working. Using Langkawi International Airport as its home base, Mr. Ravi claims they would expand to Kuching and Kota Kinabalu next year and hopefully to Indonesia, Philippines, China, Australia and Middle East at a later stage.
“Muslim crew members will be obliged to cover their heads (hijabs) and non-Muslim members of the crew are required to dress decently in accordance to Shariah requirements. The airline will not allow any pork or alcoholic beverages on board and Islamic prayers will be conducted before every flight for the safety of the crew and passengers” – founder Ravi said.
The new airline further claims that it provides 16 business class seats and 128 economy class seats, and all their employees have at least 5-year experience in the aviation industry. Interestingly, Rayani Air is a collaboration between Merdeka Jayabumi Enterprise, an oil and gas company, and Terus Maju Metal, a mining company.
So what can an O&G and mining company do that a specialist Malaysian Airlines can’t to make an airline a success? Of course, it’s always nice to play religion cards once in a while to unite Muslims for a common course – making money. But is Rayani Air really a Shariah-compliant airline to begin with?
That depends on the school of Islam you subscribe to and how extreme you want to go. Saudi Arabia is the kingdom of Sunni Muslims and the guardian of holy city Mecca where Malaysian Muslims subscribe to. However, using Saudi’s standard, Rayani Air girls cannot be considered halal because they didn’t cover 99% from head to toes, leaving the remaining 1% – a pair of eyes – exposed (read: burqa).
If ISIS version of Islam is being used as a measurement, Rayani Air isn’t halal at all because not only the airline has non-Muslim staffs, they also fly “kafir” non-Muslim customers. Hence, non-Muslim Rayani Air staffs and non-Muslim customers must be considered second-class employees and customers.
In a nutshell, these non-Muslim staffs and customers should be made to pay Shariah-compliant tax called “Jizya” or else they would be executed and their wives will become Rayani Air’s sex slave. Thus, one can debate until the cow comes home whether the self-proclaimed Shariah-compliant Rayani Air is indeed a genuine halal airline or just a fake one.
What about non-Muslim customers who wear too little to meet the halal standard and show lots of flesh and cleavage? Will Rayani Air stops them from boarding and refund them? Will non-Muslim customers be barred from using the airplane’s toilets because they might have consumed pork or alcohol prior?
If you wish to debate further, the Boeing aircraft that Muslim flyers are on is not even halal, let alone Shariah-compliant. Finger and foot prints of Christianity, Judaism, Shinto and Buddhism are all over the 737-400 aeroplane, either in the form of manufacturing, design or spare parts.
Rayani Air’s owners – Merdeka Jayabumi Enterprise and Terus Maju Metal – are not Shariah-compliant companies too, not to mention that Najib administration is absolutely not halal considering his government allows businesses such as casino, 4D and jackpot gaming, alcohol, pork, and whatnot. Are corruption and money laundering considered halal?
Slapping the new airline with halal sticker is nothing more than a marketing gimmick to hoodwink Muslims into feeling good about flying with Rayani Air. Customers should thus take the Shariah-compliant claims with a pinch of salt. As with any other new products, flying with Rayani Air should be cheaper and the customer service should be better, until such time when they become profitable and successful.
The consolation – flying with Rayani Air should be safer though because theoretically terrorists wouldn’t target a “Shariah-compliant” airline (*grin*). Still, the risk is on the second-hand planes and its maintenance records. Heck, as long as it’s cheaper to fly with the airline, who really cares whether they’re halal or not, right?
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December 22nd, 2015 by financetwitter
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Comments
What a ridiculous article. Here is a company that is trying to meet some sort of consumer demand and u compare its efforts to ISIS and Saudi Wahabbism. U r mocking and shaming anyone associated with this airline and painting all Muslims with the same brush as extremists. I’m not even a supporter of Rayyan Air or whatever its name is but I don’t have to be to see this low quality sampah article passing off as proper analysis. Please have this POS article removed.
Make sense. A niche market.
These two Indians may have struck gold in Malaysia, a country too crowded for another low-cost airline; considering AirAsia, Firefly and Malindo Air are already fighting tooth and nail for a small domestic market of 30 million.
Wait. Malaysia’s new Ryanani air is a full service airline competing with Malaysia Airlines domestically and with Thai, SIA, Garuda internationally. I remember Royal Brunei was the forerunner of a Halal Airline, also Kuwaiti Airlines but their staff are ‘indecently dressed’, Kuwaiti air uses many Christian Filipino girls as aircrew showing too much aurat. Royal Brunei were more conservative. Both definitely NO alcohol and prayed to Allah before flight.
Marketing can now be assisted by Jakim, Jais etc to say Malaysia Airlines cabin crew too revealing, aurat etc and conservative passengers will shift to them. THIS WILL GIVE THE START UP A LEG UP.
Internationally huge market flying to centres with huge demand for ‘halal services’ e.g. Xian, Jakarta, Jeddah, Decca and Rawalpindi. Will Ryanai X fly there soon.
Ravi? or aka Tony?
This development show the rise of Islam is real dude.
I hope Tony good leggy friend Branson is watching this development.
Non muslim running to serve only 25% of world population!
First of all. There is nothing wrong trying to struck gold from the Muslim market. As a muslim, we welcome any efforts to cater to the billions of Muslim around the world. Don’t scrutinised their efforts, they’ll be making millions soon.
Secondly, reading through your article, it is obvious you’re not a Muslim. I laughed so hard at some parts of your article…this is the problem with non-muslims. You generalize Islam as those of either ISIS or Saudi Arabians….well if you read more, you’d realized that the Burqa is something the arabs made-up as part of their culture which then pun becomes a religious culture. THERE IS NO BURQA IN ISLAM AND THE QURAN. Maybe you ought to travel more and you’ll see the many types of Islam around the world, from the ones in Russia to China and Brunei, we are everywhere.
Halal does not mean only for the Muslims. It just adheres certain Islamic principles and is open for EVERYONE to fly. As a Muslim woman, with two-degrees in Architecture, an MBA, a 5-figure income and a managing director of a thriving design company (and I drive the Nissan GTR), the only thing I can summarize from this writing is that…you don’t understand Islam enough to be commenting.
And if you’re thinking women who wears hijab are oppressed and sort, well shit, we’re not, and you’re just another typical Muslim hater with no true knowledge of Islam.
Even I read the bible to understand tolerance. Why can’t you open the Quran and understand the religion from a true unbiased perspective?
I stopped reading at Burqa’s argument, but I kept mtself strong to finish reading it. The retardedness is real. Author should just stop and learn more about the world instead of wasting time writing something that can mislead lots of people. Here let me give you a hint on what to google : Halal. You seriously dont understand that word AT ALL. All your arguments are childish and just sounds like an angry anti-muslims trying to use this airline as an excuse to throw your tantrum. Im gonna try an answer all your arguments as simple as i humanly can.
1)The halal employees (99% except eyes aka burqa), just read zalikha’s comment above and if you still cant understand, i cant help you.
2) ISIS standard- seriously?(lol). ISIS is not even islam so yeah ,,,this argument is void and invalid even before it started.
3?Jizya. Why would you impose jizya on an AIRLINE? You have so many fancy word that some muslims dont even use themselves yet you dare to act like you are knowledgable on that subject. Jizya is only imposed in an Islamic state, not airline. If the ruler of the nation itself doesnt ask for jizya, why do you think the airline would? It doesnt make the airline anyless halal. And if you actually know about jizya, you should know that even if a non muslim cannot afford the jizya, there is no repercussion whatsoever to the subject. So, all the sex-slave /execution whatsoever that u mentioned were all nothing more than your disgusting imagination.
4) Non muslim wearing too little clothes? Use your brain. Oh and google halal again. The only thing haram here is looking at those yummy cleavages and skins. It still doesnt make the airline haram. It is like comparing the flight to bus/ train lol. Just because some people in there wearing sexy clothing, the bus/train itself isnt considered haram to be used, or muslim all around the world cant even take public transport. You can just use your brain here seriously but you just decided to be ignorant.
5) Im starting to get annoyed at this point. AGAIN ,google halal. was the boeing aircraft needs to be slaughtered or eaten? was it made from pig/dog? This is not even an argument/point anymore. And last i checked, footprints of other religion is not considered haram. I dont know, perhaps you are more knowledgable than me.Enlighten me if you can find any verse about that from Quran.
6) Non halal funds. Im actually impressed you are able to put this point forth. it gives an impression that you actually know something about halal lol. Nevertheless, this is the only valid point you can make to deny the halalness. You should make this the number one point instead of all the trashes u wrote before that. Even so, it is still not strong enough an argument. you are going to need a proof of all the misconduct conducted by the owners of rayani air. If you can find that, then theres nothing to dispute your claim. I dont even care about whether the flight is halal or not. The only reason i commented was because your writing shows so many misleading points about Islam that i cant bear to see. And Najib? lol screw that guy. But i dont see any relationship between him and rayani air? Im less knowledgable on upper command chain of an airline but if theres major relationship between him and the airline, you dont even need to care because most of people dont e want anything related to him lol.
7)Gimmick of marketing. As mentioned from other user comment above, theres no problem to cater and make muslims feel good as long as it doesnt harm anyone, dont you think? Will absence of alcohol/pork harm anyone(as in real harm instead of illusionary discrimination)?
8)Safer from terrorists. I lolled. As reference from point 2, ISIS is not even islam and you will be surprised at how many more muslims have died at the hands of ISIS compared to non muslims.
So thats pretty much everything on all your arguments. In essence, i think this phrase will be very helpful for you since you are really ignorant about halal/haram matters.
“Everything is halal until theres a prohibition of it found in text or scriptures”. So until you can find any verse that prohibits every single thing u claimed as ‘non halal’, dont judge. And mind you, Quran is not the only reference we use in Islam. Theres also hadith, scholar’s ijma’ etc.
Cheers
The original malaysia 1st syariah compliance airlines
was from a company name flyjohore.
the application for airlines licence was made to en jaafar,rayani MD now previously with malaysian DCA..congrats for copying other people ideas and make ut yours.thats really “syariah compliance”
What a crappy article. With the availability of the www and freedom of speech, every IDIOT wants to be a writer! People who want to talk about other religions, race or countries should at least go learn things about what they want to write about. Better yet, go write fiction. That way you won’t offend anyone. Idiots like you should have the balls to put your real face and name on the articles that they write. Take responsibility for the shit that you churn out!
Much butthurt. One thing I’ve noticed about the growing use of social media by Malaysians, their capability of being the best arm-chair critic. Grow up and have an open-mind. Calling people a retard or an idiot over here is best reflect on yourself. If you have nothing constructive to say, don’t say it at all.
I am a Malaysian Muslim staying in Saudi for past 8 years. I wish to educate the writer that there is no such things that women are required to cover head to toe except for eyes in Saudi. Come and visit first and your eyes will pop open! Do not resort to making stereotype statement if you do not know the subject matter.
I never appreciate hard core religious take over activities. But this doesnt mean you (article writer) can demolish an early stage airline with having wrong social share caption “Sex slave” word and to reach more eye balls. More airlines = More choice for customers. Get your haterd double checked + you wrote good enough to support AirAsia.
No byline for this article? Don’t see any one Anyways . Must be because this analyst is just another keyboard warrior who thinks he or she is witty and smart
Flyjohore??? Flyjohore got lisense?Now not everyone can fly but everyone can claim ownership of syariah compliance. Let’s check with DCA.
Lol I laughed so hard when I read the sex slave line. You guys should write more of these articles to improve the general wellbeing of the readers. As they say, laughter is the best medicine and this piece provides bucketloads of it xD
i’m a muslim. Before we see others weakness. Do ask yourself what do muslim do for their brothers and sisters. Don’t blame others if they see as an opportunities. Where is muslim that will work hard so that will overcome all the non-comply shariah in economy and others. Not many right?.. i also ask myself the same thing… what did i do that can improve and help others to overcome this riba based, and other non-comply syariah …
The author doesnt how know to use Google lol.
Rayani Air girls cannot be considered halal because they didn’t cover 99% from head to toes, leaving the remaining 1% – a pair of eyes – exposed (read: burqa).
((lol what nonsense, Saudi Arabian TV has their female anchors showing face)
If ISIS version of Islam…
((then the plane should be a fighter bombing jet, why talk about second class and 2nd class subjects serving airline? lol))
In a nutshell, these non-Muslim staffs and customers should be made to pay Shariah-compliant tax called “Jizya” or else they would be executed and their wives will become Rayani Air’s sex slave.
((only after 1 full year, 5-10% of income to be paid, heyy one might prefer such figure instead of the common income tax. Is Rayaniair part of war against Islam? Why would there be captives of war?))
the Boeing aircraft that Muslim flyers are on is not even halal, let alone Shariah-compliant. Finger and foot prints of Christianity, Judaism, Shinto and Buddhism are all over the 737-400 aeroplane,
((lol, it is not religion that create knowledge, but rather gifted knowledge from the Creator. Also Prophet of Islam used a Roman tailored clothing in the past when leading prayer. So no issue of using non Islamic products.))
[…] 737-400 aircrafts purchased from Neptune Air Limited. Since then, whoever dared criticized it as a “fake” halal airline had been called anti-Islam, Islamophobia and […]
lol I think this dumbass got so bored from not being able to comment on the malaysian insider anymore, hence this POS article with its brazen display of ignorance and lack of itelligence.
Worst article I’ve read in a while, totally illogical. Your arguments against the airline not being sharia compliant are stupid and not worth the effort to even debate or argue over, all I can say who ever agreed to post this article online must be brain-dead.
Your article shows how low intelligence you are. Read and study the facts before comment and writing the beautiful article
for your reading pleasure