Ernst & Young in a statement said AirAsia was the first airline in the world to introduce SMS booking. It also introduced ticket-less travelling.
Fernandes’ biggest achievement has been to turn Air Asia into an international carrier. Before he arrived on the scene, countries in the region never had any kind of open-skies agreement. In mid-2003, Fernandes’ lobbying pushed Mahathir to raise the idea with the leaders of neighboring Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore. As a result, those nations have granted landing rights to Air Asia and other discount carriers. “Fernandes has had remarkable influence in shaping government and airline thinking in Southeast Asia and beyond,” says Peter Harbison, managing director of the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation, a Sydney consultancy. “The Asia Pacific airline industry will never be the same again.”
Airways’ (ASX : QAN) JetStar, Singapore-based Valuair and Singapore Airlines’ (SIN : S55) Tiger Airways. Even though this means more competition, Fernandes is proud of what he set in motion. “It was the popularity of low-cost carriers like Air Asia,” he says, “that forced them to move toward more open skies.”
AirAsia, which is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year, 2007, has ordered 100 A320s with an option for 30 more. AirAsia, currently in the process of phasing out its B737-300s, would become the largest Airbus A320 operator in the Asia Pacific region by 2012.
On his next plan, Fernandes said the company was optimistic of securing rights to fly the lucrative Singapore-Kuala Lumpur route by year 2007. “I think we could have something next year. I think the only reason in not giving us Singapore is to protect Malaysia Airlines and it is about time that ends,” he said, adding that the carrier was confident of “taking a lot of hard traffic” from Singapore over to Kuala Lumpur. Meanwhile, AirAsia is engaged in talks with prospective companies to jumpstart the airline’s maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities.
Fernandes said AirAsia’s goal over the next five years was to “keep increasing frequency as we connect more dots.” He further added – “Going forward, we will continue to build our brand and hope we will become a global brand of the size of Coca-Cola (NYSE : KO) and Nike (NYSE : NKE). I believe it is achievable.”
One of the reason I admire Tony is his passion and his humble character though he’s a multi-millionaire now. He successfully created a giant not because of his political connection (compare to some other tycoons) but because he really put in his own sweat on it, and that’s truly amazing. And now everyone can fly. If only Malaysia Airline System Berhad (KLSE : MAS, stock-code 3786) understand what it takes to run an airline company.
Go Back To Read: Tony Fernandes – The Truly Air Asia Hero (Part 1)
# TIP: If Tony were to leave AirAsia one of this day, reconsider your stock portfolio if you have AirAsia shares as not everyone has the “click” to run an airline.
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December 27th, 2006 by financetwitter
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