Tony Fernandes CEO Blog

Just wrapping up in London and heading back to K.L. It has been a terrific two weeks, a time of celebration (AirAsia X's inaugural flight to London on March 11), a time of frenetic activity (global media interviews, negotiations with bankers, discussions on sponsorship, etc.) and also a time for reflection, with several days spent in the south of France.

Now we just need to keep the momentum going. When the whole world seems to be enveloped in doom and gloom,

We're pushing ahead with our plans for expansion, launching new routes (several from Indonesia to Singapore next week, while AirAsia X's maiden flight from Kuala Lumpur to Tianjin, China, takes off April 2) and promoting Kuala Lumpur as the regional hub for low-cost travel.

Meantime, have been keeping track of the developments at home and thought the quote below seemed apt in the circumstances:

“There is nothing more powerful than inspirational leadership that unleashes principled behavior for a great cause. What makes a company or a government sustainable is not when it adds more coercive rules and regulations to control behaviors. It is when its employees or citizens are propelled by values and principles to do the right things, no matter how difficult the situation. Laws tell you what you can do. Values inspire in you what you should do. It’s a leader’s job to inspire in us those values.”

Will be posting my thoughts next week on Malaysia Airport Holdings Berhad (MAHB) and KLIA-EAST; more so on how this decision and the treatment by the government on the final decision will be pivotal in dictating the future of Malaysian businesses.