Jetstar to adopt Singlish as official language, joking right?

SINGAPORE – Jetstar Asia released a video on its Facebook page on Thursday (March 31) claiming it will be adopting Singlish as its official language, complete with cabin and flight crew using Singlish on flights.

It was slated to launch on Friday, April 1, also known as April Fools’ Day.

Lest consumers be fooled, the publicity campaign is indeed an April Fools’ joke, TODAY has confirmed with the airline.

Its website will also be in Singlish on Friday.

Since Jetstar Asia posted the video on its Facebook page at 9am on Thursday, it’s been viewed about 28,000 times and has had about 375 shares as at 6pm.

In the video, the airline enacted an in-flight announcement with cabin crew saying: “Seatbelt must kiap low and tight for take-off, turbulence and landing. This aeroplane got eight emergency exits, remember where ah. Cannot smoke anywhere hor. If smoke detector goes off, you jialat I tell you. Thank you and enjoy your flight.”

While the airline will not be embracing Singlish on their flights, a spokesman told TODAY they are “huge fans” of the Singlish, and that is “no joke”.

Unlike other April Fools’ publicity stunts – such as one released on Thursday by online grocery store honestbee, in which consumers were asked to order exotic meats such as panda meat and koala sausages – responses on Jetstar Asia’s post were largely of bemusement.

One Facebook user Jeffrey Tan commented: “I wanna travel on their flight and video the whole PA.”

Other users have responded similarly in Singlish. Some comments include: “Shiok” (a slang expressing pleasure) and “ho seh” (‘good’ in Hokkien).