Air Asia X A330 landing Sydney
	Julie-Anne Foster

Julie-Anne Foster of Lismore to jet off to KL with 251 Facebook friends

A mother of three from NSW will treat 251 of her Facebook friends to a holiday in Malaysia travelling in their own private jet after winning AirAsia’s hugely anticipated plane giveaway.

Julie-Anne Foster, a 42-year-old bookkeeper from Lismore, was today announced the winner of the airline’s ‘Friendsy’ Facebook competition, which attracted exactly 12,500 entries from around the country and involved just under a million people.

Mrs Foster and her friends will enjoy return flights to Kuala Lumpur travelling in a special reserved AirAsia Airbus A330-300, as well as three nights’ accommodation at ibis Styles Fraser Business Park.

“You never expect to win when you enter competitions and when they told me I didn’t believe it – I thought I was getting prank called,” Mrs Foster said.

“I rang my husband Darren and he didn’t believe it either, but we’ve had a few celebratory drinks and it’s starting to sink in. It’s just been a buzz.”

The competition was launched in April to celebrate AirAsia’s new Sydney to Kuala Lumpur route. Entry was via a specially designed Facebook app, with entrants asked to fill up to 302 virtual plane seats with their Facebook friends.

Mrs Foster’s 251 friends included her children aged18, 16 and 12, her mum, three brothers and one sister.

“I filled the premium Flatbed seats with family first and then I went through all my friends and picked those who I thought would like to have a holiday with us, including my hockey team, my daughter’s swim club friends and friends that we go away with all the time,” Mrs Foster said.

“This will be the first overseas trip for some of my friends and there’s a few who are getting their passports organised now. They are really excited to explore Kuala Lumpur.”

Mrs Foster said she wanted to treat her friends to an unforgettable night in KL by hiring out the famous SkyBar, which offers incredible views of the illuminated Petronas Towers.

“It will be interesting to see how many I can get up into the SkyBar, but I don’t know if they’ll accept 200-odd excited Aussies all at once!,” she said.

AirAsia X marketing manager Stuart Myerscough said just under a million Facebook users - 964,461 to be precise – had been tagged on a friend’s plane.

“This was our biggest and most exciting competition in Australia yet and a great way to thank Australians for their support,” he said. “Congratulations to Julie-Anne and we hope she and all 251 of her mates have the trip of a lifetime.

“AirAsia is committed to upholding its ‘Now everyone can fly’ pledge. We’re thrilled to be able to take some of Julie-Anne’s friends on their first overseas trip ever and show them, and everyone else, why we’re the World’s Best Low Cost Airline.”

The AirAsia Friendsy plane will depart November 2 from Sydney Airport and return from Kuala Lumpur on November 5, 2012. The total prize is worth up to $268,615.

The trip will be the second time Mrs Foster and her family have flown with AirAsia.

“They are so competitive - their fares make it so affordable to get over to Asia,” she said. “We had in fact booked another trip to Vietnam with AirAsia next April before we knew about this prize, so we’re also excited about that.”

AirAsia X, the long haul affiliate of AirAsia, also operates direct flights to Kuala Lumpur from the Gold Coast, Melbourne and Perth as well as connecting ‘Fly-Thru’ flights to popular ASEAN countries.

AirAsia was named the World’s Best Low Cost Airline in the annual World Airline Survey by Skytrax for three consecutive years in 2009, 2010 and 2011.