Citation

“No one has done more to transform the Asia-Pacific aviation landscape in the last 18 years than AirAsia Group CEO, Tony Fernandes. On September 1, 2001, he and his partner, Kamarudin Meranun, acquired a small government-owned Malaysian airline, saddled with a US$11 million debt, for the princely sum of one ringgit, or US$0.25.

Within a year, the failing airline had been transformed into low-cost carrier AirAsia. It was in profit and spreading its fast growing wings across Malaysia with plans to fly to Southeast Asia and the regional Asia-Pacific.

Initially, full-service carriers were dismissive of the newcomer, but they soon learned, as had airlines in Europe and the U.S., that low-cost airlines were a threat to their operating model and budget flying was being embraced by the expanding middle classes of the region’s emerging economies.

Fernandes has been relentless in his drive to bring affordable travel to the region, a passion he ascribed in his autobiography, “Flying High”, to making sure “Now Everyone Can Fly”.

His perceptive application of social media to reach and build the AirAsia Group audience was unprecedented in the industry as was the LCC’s strategy of opening under-served routes across the region. The combination of technology and providing flights for passengers overlooked by legacy carriers fueled the LCC’s growth and set the operating template rival budget carriers emulated.

The airline group established joint venture LCCs in India, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand and the Philippines and set up AirAsia X, a long-haul LCC. In the process, Fernandes and his team built AirAsia into one of the most recognizable brands in the Asia-Pacific.

The airline group also forced significant changes in strategy at the full-service end of the market. Several full-service airlines now operate their own LCC subsidiaries as budget carriers usurped legacy carrier demand for cheap, back-of-the-plane economy fares.

As the group enters its third decade of operations, Fernandes, his partners and his employees are transforming the AirAsia Group into a travel and lifestyle brand intended to be the “Amazon of Aviation” in the Asia-Pacific.