A Paws-perous CNY with DogQ residents at AirAsia’s global headquarters

AirAsia Allstars came together on 10 January for DogQ Open House.

AirAsia Allstars (staff) come in many shapes and sizes, including four-legged ones. AK, FD, QZ and D7 are four rescue-dogs which AirAsia adopted back in early 2017, and has grown into members of the family that all staff love as well. 

Today, all four of them had a unique treat - AirAsia’s very first ‘lou sang’ of a furry kind, in conjunction with the upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations. The ‘yee sang’ contains a delicious assortment of chicken, spinach, carrots, salami, strawberries and also kibbles. 

The special ‘yee sang’ consisted of a delicious assortment of chicken, spinach, carrots, salami, strawberries and also kibbles for AK, FD, QZ and D7.

AirAsia’s senior management including AirAsia Malaysia CEO, Riad Asmat and AirAsia X Malaysia CEO Benyamin Ismail joined in the fun to celebrate this occasion as well. 

(L-R) CEO of AirAsia X Malaysia, Benyamin Ismail together with CEO of AirAsia Malaysia, Riad Asmat and Vijaya Priya Ananthan, co-founder of DogQ tossing the special ‘yee sang’ for RedQ’s resident dogs.

Riad Asmat, CEO of AirAsia Malaysia shared, “We love our four resident dogs very much as they are part of our family. Today the committee organised the first DogQ open house, inviting Allstars to come to DogQ and get to know them a little better. This is also a drive to boost awareness and raise funds for the wellbeing of the dogs. 

Benyamin Ismail, CEO of AirAsia X Malaysia also added, “It was a good session for Allstars and hopefully, more will come forward to help by becoming a volunteer with the dogs -- walking the dogs as well as helping to clean DogQ”. 

However, it is not all just for fun - this special ‘lou sang’ was part of AirAsia’s internal staff engagement activities to recruit more volunteers and raise funds for the upkeep of DogQ.

AirAsia Allstars also managed to raise some funds through this DogQ CNY Open House.

“For the past year, we’ve had a strong team of DogQ volunteers who will walk and feed the dogs everyday, including weekends as well as maintain the operation of DogQ. We’ve seen Allstars who otherwise would not know each other (due to the size of the office and company now) grow so much closer and become good friends through working together to take care of AK, QZ, FD and D7,” said Vijaya Priya Ananthan, one of the co-founders of DogQ. 

“This will definitely be an annual affair, as I believe that the 60 two-legged Allstars who came and celebrated with our four furrry Allstars enjoyed themselves as much as the dogs did. They got to knows the dogs better, and we are very happy that AK, FD, QZ and D7 behaved so well and welcomed everyone so warmly during this open house. Furthermore, we recruited 16 more volunteers today and this would greatly complement the existing group of volunteers’ schedules in year 2020,” Renuka Kunathevan, another DogQ co-founder added. 

AirAsia is an organisation that promotes inclusivity and diversity including providing a working environment that is conducive for everyone across all walks of life - including animal and pet lovers. 

AirAsia Allstars at the very first DogQ CNY open house

The dogs enjoying themselves at their very first open house.

History of DogQ:

When AirAsia moved from the old LCC Terminal in Sepang to its new office, RedQ back in November 2016, it came along with four furry friends. The four dogs remained around the RedQ premises every day and quickly drew attention from animal-loving Allstars due to their friendly demeanour. 

A group of Allstars came together and brought it up to our Group CEO, Tony Fernandes who immediately agreed that the four of them should be adopted as part of the AirAsia family and funded the building of DogQ. Allstars then further raised funds together to ensure that the dogs are spayed, vaccinated and provided training apart from having a healthy diet.

Of course, the four dogs are given names representing some of the airlines in the AirAsia and AirAsia X Groups (AK, FD, QZ and D7). Since then, all AirAsia staff in RedQ have grown to love and care for the four dogs like their own. 

The next time you are in RedQ, do drop by DogQ to say hello to our four-legged Allstars!