Tony Fernandes CEO Blog

Datuk, Welcome onboard to the blog-o-sphere! Continue to inspire us.

Thanks for being one of us bloggers.

Dato' Tony, congrats and welcome to the blogosphere..

Wow...just wanted to drop a welcome note as well....WeLcOmE!!! :)

Hello Dato' Welcome aboard! so good to have you blogging! It has always been an inspiration to hear you speak or to read what you have said. keep inspiring us the Malaysians... We need people like you...and I am so proud of what you have become, its amazing to see your success. Wishing you all the very best in all that you do! p/s: I would like to work for you, will you hire me?

Great. Your choice of joining the Malaysian blogsphere is important for the evolution of the blogging community. Welcome. Do you like to read Kennysia.com ?

Dato' Tony, First of all, congratulations on establishing the blog. I have found the internet as a very easy, fast and effective way of communicating. Take this example. It is quite some time that I wish to communicate with you but for some reason, never got around to get the letter written. By accident, browsing one of the blogs, your blog address was there and here I am communicating with you. Internet is really fantastic.

My intention in communicating with you is to express my gratitude and appreciation for having made many destinations available to many travellers at affordable fare prizes particularly to Malaysians. I have taken advantage of the many promotional fare and holiday packages offered - to Yangon, Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Surabaya, Padang. Looking forward to the Menado trip in October. So far I have found the services provided as very good except for the occasional delay in the flights.

Here are some of my observations:
a. your ebooking is easy and not complicated and do away with
unnecessary - doing away with honorifics such as Tan Sri, Dato'- as your
competitor does. It is a waste of time.
b. I have found the check-in counters efficient and the receptionists courteous.
c. I have enjoyed the previlege of boarding the plane with the express boarders,
being a senior citizen whose age in excess of 65. I thought that was a very
human and considerate previlege. However, recently this previlege has been
removed, perhaps due to abuses.
d. I observe that the employees from the pilot to the stewardesses perform
multitasking and with their HEART. On one occasion I notice a pilot helping in
closing the door of the plane.
e. The hotels that are selected for the holiday package fulfil the
requirements of the clients - central location, wellness facilities
such as massage and gym, night club, reasonable room rates
f. The good mix of ethnicity of your staff. How beautiful they are-
truly representing the diversity of the beautiful people of Malaysia
g. Your Pak Nasir's Nasi Lemak was originally fantastic. But recenty I have found
the reduction in both the 'lemak' and the portion seved.

I am glad that AirAsia is concentrating on destinations in ASEAN countries. There are so much to see, cherish the wealth of cultures and food, historical monuments and share the simple life of the ordinary people in the streets. On the flight routes, I wish to suggest AirAsia flies to the Central Asian countries of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

Dato', As a Malaysian I am proud of your contribution to the air industry and country.

Warm wishes.
Hasbaw

Dear Sir, Happy to see you having your own Blog. First of all, I would like to THANK YOU for giving us more and more oppurtunity to FLY at a very low Price.... Truly You are one of those People that we will never Forget in Our Life. Thanks Alot!! Regards, VJ

Dear Dato, I'm looking forward to your post here. Your success inspire me, hope you share your experience and idea here with us. As a Sarawakian, & work in KL, thanks to airasia with more affordable price, I can keep in touch with my friend & family back in home town more often. Best Regards, David Tan

Hey Dato Tony! Welcome aboard this flight! When will the KUL-Tianjin(PEK) flight start? The large Malaysian/Singaporean expat community here in Beijing is eagerly waiting for that for a long time already! With the new high-speed rail link between Tianjin and Beijing, the trip should even be better than before. Hope it starts soon! Cheers, Mango

A warm welcome. In this age of technology, it's very much impossible to stay away from the temptation of making use of technology to share our views and ideas. It's really nice to see that you have taken an extra initiative to communicate and exchange your views and opinions though The Entrepreneur to the success of people like me.

I hope you would continue to inspire young Malaysians like me through your writings and success stories. And, I also hope your blog to be a worthy tool to hear you and be heard by you much stronger than ever.

All the best and I welcome you to the club :)

Congrats Dato Tony ....just one question when we can fly to India .....

Hi Tony, welcome on board! Now at least we know where we can get you if we need to make complains about your airline. So far, you guys are doing well so please do keep up the good work!

Tony, great that you have joined the blogsphere! It is great to see you share with all of us in your blog. Looking forward to read your sharing! All the best in bringing Air Asia to greater height!

Hi Datuk Tony Fernandez Congratz for your blog.Im quite proud of you.Hopefully thorugh this blog we could learn many things from you as well share our opinions through this blog. Take care :)

two things tony, a) why is it that senai airport, which sits close to kulai-pasir panjang(singapore) station rail line, neglects this facility and b) is the rising USD hurting airasia. Cheers for the first regional airline is asean. due to making Kota kinabalu your hub, the tourist industry there is booming. maybe a connection to manado and palawan(if there is an airport) from kk?

Hi Dato Tony, congratulations and welcome abroad! It's great pleasure to be able to connect to you directly and to read to your views on matters. I missed one precious session in meeting you in person last year which I still regret now. You have always been inspiring to people and I hope you'll continue to burn and spread the flame of unity in the hearts of Malaysians. We need more people like you to make the country a better place. All the best to you and I hope to meet you in person one day!

HI Datuk! It's g8 to knw you have a blog. I've been a fan of Air Asia for a couple of years now and I must say I salute your you and your team! Keep you the good work and I'm sure you'll cont to grow and thrive! P/s Just a note I went into air asia website to post a complain and I can't seem to do that. Can you send me a link for it?

Hi there Tony ( Dato). Welcome aboard the bloggers world. Very proud of your many achivements and accomplishments in life and in Malaysia starting with your music industry contributions. We in the music scene always remember you with great fondness. Regards. Joe Chelliah

Dear Sir, It is really nice to see your own blog. Congrats sir and thank you for giving an opportunity to people like us. I believe there are millions of people out there are looking to be like you. Of course, it comes with hard work and effort. All I wish to say when time permits you, do listen to the new younger entrepreneurs. I am sure they will also want to be like you. As you mentioned, “Imagine if there were 51 more such companies. That would be something to REALLY look forward to”. May god bless you with good heart and happiness always. Have a good year sir,

Hello Tony, Congratulations and Welcome aboards! While now we are able to connect to you directly and able to related our view to you. Here is the challenge in return better services that throws to you on first hand experience that I had while flying with AirAsia. After hearing the success of the AirAsia, on a return trip to Malaysia after years long overseas stays, on July 2008 we decided to fly with AirAsia, an trip to Redang from KL. With equally impress by all advertisements in reds at subway, shopping complexes in KL with all the smiling faces of pretty and with excitement in minds, we took our first steps and journey with AirAsia. But to our shock, here are our experiences. Since this we our first return trip to Malaysia after 8 years, I decided to go for Roti Cannai and my wife opt for Nasi Berani on flight meals, guess what the flight attendance totaly forget to serve the meals .Leaving us in wonder ….upon request there were no sign of apologies or regrets .There were confusion for a while they took time to check our boarding pass and the meals order. So finally when we got our meal, we were almost arrived at KT Airports. We opt to have our on flight meals at KT airport upon arrival, well that not to so bad too, we were hungry though! But what really disappointed us is that the lady flight stewardesses was totally rude while staring at us with such ignorant and impolite manner, further what really disappoint us is that the smile that AirAsia promise through the red big huge advertisement boards representing the beautiful people of Malaysia and smiles while flying with AirAsia , were missing on the same flights. Why not introduce come cheers to your flights and delivery what AirAsia promise to public via media through quality of services. Malaysia is wealth of culture's, history in context, while let show this with the ambassador of flights through the window of world. Bob Phoo

Hi Dato, Me and my family are frequent flyers of Air Asia. Happy to see you blogging. Let us talk more of services and not involve politics in anyway to creep in. Both my kids love the way you have made it in the airline industry. We would like to meet you in person someday. Avlis

Hi Dato Tony, First off, I just want to congratulate you on your new blog. I would also like to say "syabas" for running AirAsia so successfully. It has really allowed more people to travel and experience the wider world, which I think makes us a better person as we will be exposed to different cultures and be more understanding and accepting of differences. Looking forward to more destinations and cheaper flights around the world with AirAsia. Any plans to fly to Taiwan and Korea soon? Really look forward to that. Wish you all the best for your blog and every success in business.

Welcome Dato thanks for making us proud............

Hi Dato, U r unique...very unique...... came out from the shield of CEO and like to talk to public.. anyway wish u keep going on with ur goodworks. Do u prefer to reply email from the public especially those young chaps like me who always dreams to have good communication with succesful enterpreneur like u? Expecting ur reply......................... Adios amigo

Namastae Datuk Tony, Congratualtions on becoming a blogger. This is another noble acehivement and a feather in your cap. Like you have said, wish there were more efficent companies like AirAsia that represent Malaysia Boleh :) Read all the comments and would like to add a request. Would you consider adding HEALTHY sancks as well as at least ONE choice for VEGETARIANS. Love ALL and exclude NO ONE.

Hi Tony ( dont believe in formalities). Great- finally get a chance to share thoughts with the Man who made it possible for us to go where no one had bothered to make it possible or at the price we can afford ,until now. Competition is great. Wakes up the slumbering and gives opportunities to the deprived masses. I have been on Airasia on numerous missions trips, biz and leisure and I have to give credit where its due.Thanks Fren for making it possible and I dare say AA's service as its initials suggest is no inferior to the other guys incl other budget carriers.I fully agree with the total all inclusive fare cocept- why make the poor consumer second guess ?! Competitive confidence and consumer trust must prevail. Keep up the AA Service! More to share with you later. God Bless You.

Hi Tony, Welcome on board the blogging world. Looking forward to read interesting posting from you. You had proven many skeptics wrong. Wishing you all the best.

Hi Dato Tony, first Congrats for AirAsia. I've been a budget, budget traveller since 1970 - hitchhiking, sleeping in train stations, airports, camping on the Andes, deck of wooden boat in Egypt/Sudan, using youth fares, standbys etc. With that as a Msian female I had managed to see most parts of our wonderful world with fantastic people. Great that no-frills started and now spreading in Asia. Currently I'm looking after an NGO doing voluntary community service in Mongolia. My base is Penang, my HQ is India, so looking forward to Tianjin and India soonest. I believe your ambition is to make AA global and with a consistent 'Values' model, creativity, tireless, smart diligence, NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE. All the best!

Dear Tony, How are you? Can you list to us the five most important factors that contributed to the phenomenal success of Air Asia and you as the ceo? Thank you. Best regards. May God bless you and your love ones.

Hi Dato, I will be the same like others in the comment column. I am inspire with how you build your Air Asia empire and how you brands Air Asia as one of the leading low cost provider worldwide. Definitely I will be looking forward for your updates in this blogs and hope to learn more from a person who open the eyes of many Malaysian. Cheers Dato

WHY CAN'T WE FLY EASIER?
Asks John Weinthal an ex-pat pensioner living in Malaysia foir fiur years and member National press Club of Malaysia

I love travel.

As an AirAsia regular I like their fares, no frills service, enthusiastic staff and the fact that it has one of the youngest big jet fleets.

But even with flying becoming more affordable it is still not notably user friendly, and not just thanks to supposed Security issues.

Maybe the following thoughts - they can hardly be original - are unsupportable thanks to IATA or some other busybody.

Flight Planning:

I want to go to Bali then Jakarta returning to KL via Thailand, but affordable flying seems geared solely for the A-to-B-to-A traveler.

I have just about given up on multiple destination trips, or I pay the penalty for switching flights. Changing tickets is a great profit centre for airlines. It is all profit involving no financial outlay. With a few keystrokes your requirements are met. You could easily do it yourself.

I understand surcharges if flights are changed less than say three days out, but beyond that is amoral profiteering. Worse is when you bring a flight forward. Clearly there is an unsold seat or the change would be impossible.

One books a holiday for 14 days but after eight you have had enough. "No problem", says nice lady. "That will be X amount". A more appropriate reply would surely be: "Thank you for filling our empty seat and giving us time to sell another."

Who can doubt that many more would fly, more often and possibly a lot further if there was transparently fair flexibility?

Who Will Fly?

On booking - online, over the counter or with that modern anachronism, a Travel Agent – one reveals all: name, passport details, a couple of phone numbers, email and more.

Fair enough. I accept airlines must know with whom they are entering a business transaction.

However, if I am paying for more than just myself the airline requires similar details for all. Why? The others are my responsibility. They have no business relationship with the airline.

Does this matter?

It can.

The purchaser may want one or more staff to attend a conference or whatever, but is uncertain who.

I need assistance to travel, but do not know who among my friends or family will be free at the time.

I want to give someone a surprise trip; a birthday present perhaps.

Why can I not purchase a number of seats at appropriate fares without detailing who the passenger(s) will be? The airline gets its money. I choose who flies, and when I will advise them of the trip.

I can see no SECURITY bonus in knowing more than, say, three days in advance who will occupy a seat. The only time the passenger is verified with a picture against face-to-face meeting is at the check-in counter.
PRICING ON INTERNET BOOKING AND IN ADS

Why cause delay and added frustration by giving a fare first then later - after all the rigmarole of entering many details - declaring the real cost. We must pay fuel surcharges and various taxes. They are not options like baggage charge or insurance. Declare them upfront - don't frustrate or confuse your customers.


NOW EVERYONE CAN FLY, says AirAsia.


Why not move ahead of the rest and make it: NOW EVERYONE CAN FLY EASY WITH FLEXI-FLY.

A sound business case can be made for this.

Hi Tony, (I feel much closer to call your name in blogging world, hope you don't mind) Welcome to the internet world. I feel AirAsia is so close to me and my family as it's my travel partner now. With this blog, I feel I'm a step closer not only with AirAsia but also with you. Apart from"Everyone can fly" it is also "Everyone can talk" now. I'm looking forward to read and "talk" in your blog. Thanks!!

I'm truly flattered by everyone comments here and hope you will bear with me while I try to answer all your questions.

Tell you what, I'll start a special email address so that some of you can contact me directly for suggestions and complaints. Will let you know soon.

In the meantime, for those who wish to get in touch with AirAsia on customer issues,you may wish to send it to Guest Support where these issues can be resolved properly. AirAsia has also launched a new corporate blog - AirAsia Blog titled "Just Plane Thoughts". In fact, some of your answers can be found there such as the vegetarian meal on board and on new routes.

Kind regards,
Tony

congratz...welcome on board..

Aweeeesssoooomeee...splash..splash!!XOX

I am joining this as well ....this is fun!!!!

Hi Tony and welcome to the blogosphere...

Hope to have more of your insights in yr coming posts. As a member of the travel industry, it would be interesting to hear from you..

Cheers, Leo

hey tony, very surprise to hear that you start blogging... i saw from kennysia that you got a blog. so, i come here to pay a visit... i am looking forward to see your coming post... "add oil" oh... regards

The internet is indeed wonderful. Great to have local heroes & leaders opinions and thoughts pen downed in blogs. You have been indeed inspiring.

Hello Tony, Welcome to cyberspace......

Hello dato, Congrates to all the REDS...been flying with AirAsia ever since the DRB days. Being from sarawak to fly to West malaysia always create a financial nightmare for me...but eversince everyone can fly...i think of no other airline to travel on. Love everthing about Airasia!!! Just wanna know whether Airasia has plans to go into or be part of the environment and wildlife conservation? For your information, i am a veterinarian with Zoo Negara which is run by the Malaysian Zoological Society (NGO). We get close to a million visitors and the numbers are increasing every year. All the best to Dato and the REDS..

Helo dato, another milestone to the REDS; to increase frequency into and out of singapore plus direct flights from Kch, MYY and BKI into Singapore.

Home is where d Heart is..MALAYSIA STILL D BEST..GO AIRASIA!!XOX

helo dato, sad to hear of the last boeing 737 from kk touched down here in LCCT and will be the last boeing to be phased out. So now airasia is totally airbus A320...congrates for that. Read that airasia have plans to fly to Hawaii or even the african continent, bravo another milestone. FLY REDS FLY.......

Congrates yet again, after being awarded the best Low Cost Carrier in Asia. REDS FLY HIGH......

goodday dato. congrates to u.. anyway hope u can fly a lot of areas if u have the own site. please check your email dato to see my simple suggestion.. tq

Ths most important thing in business is you have to make customers satisfy. You have the right pricing, the right attitude of staff, the right aircrafts (new), the right networks and destinations, smooth online booking (except try cut down to one page rather then having to fill up few pages just to book a seat). And now with this blog, even the top guy is reading and getting feedback from the customers. Well done.

hey, i am a first-year university student who doing finance and accounting.. hope that i can know more about you by this blog.. you are really inspire me.. seriously.. haha

Hi there, Hope everybody is fine here... anywhere I read someone is going to attend the cadet pilot interview end of this month with Aiasia? Is anyone knew more about it? I 'd like to apply for it but haven't seen any advertisement on Start And other newspaper? Hi Mr Pilot, nice to hear from you...actually what u mentioned earlier was a good suggestion indeed!! Well, I am female Chinese , looking for a cadet pilot programme to join asap!! And I'm only happy if I will be able to fly with Airasia!! Dato Tony is my enormous idol!! Plsease inform mehere...thank you! Little Malayisan Dreamer, Cinta Theresa

Hi Datuk, Just some feed back for you. On 27 Sept, I was sending my son off to Christchurch. Since Airasia does not go there, he is to fly to Melbourne then on Jetstar to Christchurch. As Australia is part of the Commonwealth, I thought there is no need for a visa. Anyway, we were trying to check in and since we didn't apply for a visa my son was not reflected on the system. The check-in girl asked for help and a supevisor came to help. After making a call he came to tell us the bad news that my son can't fly as he has not applied for an e-visa! We were devastated! I told him if it is an e-visa, can we apply on the spot. He said the embassy is closed as it was about 9.15 pm. Told him we would try as I am one of those who won't give up easily and without trying. The system should be up 24 hours, what office hours! I ask him whether there is any internet facility at the LCCT, he said there is none! My son has a laptop, so I told him to try. Later there was one of your guy by the name of Eric and he took a to a nearby VIP room and he helped us to apply for the e-visa which was done in 5 minutes! I wanted to give Eric some token of reward but he politely declined. My concern is if I am not insistence, the whole event would have been ugly. How come the supervisor not advised us correctly? Later when I told my friends about it, some had the same problem and was told to apply the e-visa on the spot. Please put an appropriate guy incharge of such critical job. Please give Eric some reward! I must say I have no complaint about Airasia before this. We have been all over Asia with you and looking to fly with you all over the world in the future but please take care of your service. Your brand is at stake. Please fly to NZ soon! All the best to you. Take care of yourself especially your health!