Tony Fernandes CEO Blog

I spent the past week in France. Went to see Airbus and then took a few days off cruising on a boat with my dear friend Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the founder of the Easy Group. It was great fun.

Few know how we got acquainted. I had been working in Warner Music for 15 years. First as Warner Communication then Time Warner. In between, we merged with CNN and finally became AOL Time Warner. That was one merger too many for me and I was against it so in 2000, I stood in the Warner office in Rockfeller Center, New York and I quit. It was impulsive but then I knew that I didn't believe in their vision and I was having problems with my boss anyway so it was time to go. I had no idea what I was going to do but I just felt that the time had come for me to go. I guess I was always aware when my sell by date was.

So I walked. I think my boss was really happy I did. I flew from New York back to London which, in many ways was my home as I had spent such a long time there.

I was watching the telly in a pub and I saw Stelios on air talking about Easyjet and running down the national carrier, British Airways (Sound familiar? Hahaha). I was intrigued as I didn't know what a low cost carrier was but I always wanted to start an airline that flew long haul with low fares.

So I went to Luton and spent a whole day there. I was amazed how people were flying to Barcelona and Paris for less than 10 pounds. Everything was organised and everyone had a positive attitude. It was then at that point in Luton airport that I decided to start a low cost airline. in January 2001, armed with one million I went about building AirAsia. The rest is now history.

So I owe a lot to Stelios. I emailed him a few times. He always replied but was not keen on investing. We became good friends after we met at the World Economic Forum.
Since then we have seen each other quite a few times. The great thing about Stelios is his humility and that's very endearing. He has moved on from Easyjet to Easyhotel, Easycruise, Easycinema, Easybus and even Easypizza.

I watched the Monte Carlo Grand Prix from his apartment. He is right above the start line as you can see from the pictures.

Stelios is like Richard who was also there. These are serial entreprenuers. They like to start a business and then move onto another one. I love his energy, his drive, his desire to have fun but above all, his humility.