Tony Fernandes CEO Blog

WOW, 3 times in a row! Thank you, thank you and thank you!

I am deeply humbled by this show of support that you, our guests, have given to us at AirAsia. Being voted World’s Best Low Cost Airline; not once or twice but thrice consecutively is just amazing. This recognition is very meaningful to all of us at AirAsia as it is an award bestowed following an independent global survey that was conducted by a respectable London-based aviation consultant - Skytrax. Over 19 million travelers worldwide took the survey and we came out top in this most prestigious and respected airline award survey, which measures airlines’ product and service standards. This goes to prove our constant effort to improve and innovate are working.

I believe by pouring your heart and soul into your dreams, you can undoubtedly achieve it and it is just a matter of time. However, to be the best and stay on as the Best takes passion and the spirit of never give up!

3 times a charm!

Whilst I am over the moon on this, I would not forget the blood, sweat and tears of everyone at AirAsia. So, I am going to attribute this award to the AirAsia Allstars who are and have been the pillar of our success all throughout. I can still recall vividly how AirAsia started with just mere 250 employees in 2001 and we have now grown with strength of over 8000 employees across the ASEAN region. Also, the long and winding road of each of the battle we fought tirelessly. What could be a better gift then this award as we celebrate our tenth year anniversary in a few months’ time. A big pat on the back of all the AirAsia Allstars who made this dream come true. You guys really and absolutely deserve this award. A big and fun celebration will ensue and after that we will work even harder to lift AirAsia to the next level and into the next decade.

Din and our girls with the award

As for you, our guest, we will strive to be more customer friendly and orientated, make available great and unbeatable products and services that span over a much bigger network of connectivity like there has never been before. We are indeed very proud and grateful to have been chosen as the People’s Champion, People’s Airline once again. I would just leave you now with a BIG thank you for the wonderful support expressed. There’s never an end to dream, as if it does life would be a shame. Therefore, the next one to realize could be elusive but not entirely impossible; Let’s see if we can get this next year - Skytrax World’s Best Airline Cabin Staff Award – AirAsia! After all, YOU should Dream the Impossible! Don’t Take No for An Answer! Believe the Unbelievable!

Good day folks, sit tight, stay tune and be surprised by us!

Blood.Sweat.Tears

I’m back to F1 mode now with Silverstone cracking this weekend. We are half way through the season and I must say it’s been interesting few races for us here at Team Lotus.

Our beautiful car The Silverstone track walk

Let’s start with few highlights of my joy - Heikki reaching Q2 on merit and strategy in Barcelona was a phenomenal feeling for the whole team, and we are pulling away from our closest challengers. We also had our best result of the season so far on the streets of Monaco, which is the most famous and glamorous race of them all. Both our cars came home with Jarno and Heikki finishing at 13th and 14th respectively in the race, which was a very strong finish for us.
I had always thought that it’s hard to measure and articulate how far the team has come, as all other teams are progressing too. But Graham Watson, our Team Manager, helped explain the team’s progress in no uncertain terms and in an unambiguous manner that made me awestruck! He said: “simply look at our pit stops last year; for example, we were 7 or 8 seconds for every session, and we were generally quite happy with that; Now we are pushing for 3.5 to 4 seconds every time, and have consistently been achieving quick stops.

Jarno Heikki doing his track walk

This is unbelievable and rightfully so considering we’re up against teams who can spend half a million dollars on their equipments and training with more experience than team lotus, and still we’re right up there – at Monaco we delivered the 10th fastest pit-stop in the entire Grand Prix, which is no mean feat, but that just goes to show how far we’ve come in one area of our team. That is just pit stop; Zooming passed finishing line, we have done it three times this season and finished ahead of one of the cars of the established teams. It is a big challenge for us to find the 0.5 seconds that will propel us towards the midfield teams, but we have the right elements in place to achieve this; that is the team members.

Me & Riad Our Beauties

People have always been ‘key’ to my belief in success; I believe when you put them in the right place and give them the right tools, tremendous potential will explode. I am confident in my team that we will be World Champions in the not too distanced future, so I want everyone in Team Lotus to feel a part of that growth and to expand with it. Giving people opportunities, trusting in their capabilities and giving them confidence to realise their potential have been my style of work and this has brought about great achievements in my other business.

All in, we will definitely get there. We just need to make steps in the right direction and keep moving albeit small steps so long it’s the way forward; to grow in a measured, controlled way that gives us the best foundations for future success.

In terms of off track news, we’ve had some very productive developments for the team. Firstly we signed an agreement with Williams to make use of their wind tunnel, which doubles our abilities to test aerodynamic packages. At the moment the team have to travel back and forth to Italy, and while we will maintain our agreement with Aerolab, this means that more of the team will be able to actively and effectively work on the various tests so crucial to the development of our car. We’ll start utilising it properly in September, as our team grows and more staff come on board.

As I’m sure you know, Frank Williams has always been an incredible inspiration to me; it means so much to be able to work alongside his team and I feel proud to be working to the same level as someone who sparked my dream. We’re not far behind the Williams on track, still chasing, but we will not stop progressing.
For those of you, who are coming to Silverstone this weekend, cheer for Team Lotus!

Hi guys, I would like to apologise for another slack moment on my part. The past 3 months have not only been hectic but erratic. There was a period of 10 days or so that I actually circumvented the globe not once but thrice! Phew…

However, I must say it has been the most fruitful 3 months of my life. And, I would like to share with all of you insights of each event here starting on my recent trip to Paris Air Show at Le Bourget.

The brand new Airbus A320 NEO that will paint the sky RED!

Some of you might have read that AirAsia has concluded at the Paris Air Show the largest ever Airbus deal by number of aircraft as well as the largest ever order for aircraft in the A320 family worth US$18.5 billion. This order makes up of 200 firm orders of Airbus A320 NEO aircraft. Together with the existing 175 firm orders of Airbus A320 Classic, AirAsia is now recognized as the world’s largest airline customer of Airbus in history with an order of 375 A320 family aircraft to date.

As much as I am surprised, I’m extremely proud at the same time to learn of this. This is an important milestone in our growth, and this solidifies our position as the world’s best low-cost airline. I can still recall we first penned an order with Airbus for 40 A320 Classic aircraft back in December 2004; 6 and half years on, we increased the size of order more than 9 folds. This is incredible and a tremendous achievement for an airline that is only 10 years old. With the promising growth of our sister airlines in Thailand and Indonesia and the upcoming Philippines and Vietnam operations, I believe AirAsia, as a group, have the capacity to take up to 500 aircraft. This is backed by the continuous growth of the number of passenger we have served, from an annual passenger volume of 200,000 when we first launched as a low-cost airline in 2001 to an estimated 31 million this year.

At this juncture, I would like to attribute all honour flowing from here to my loyal and faithful management team that is ever ready in embracing innovation and technological advancements.

With the introduction of the Airbus A320 NEO aircraft, guests of AirAsia can look forward to more exciting routes over and above the 130 routes over 63 destinations in South East Asia, China, India and Australia via Bali, Indonesia that AirAsia is flying to. This is made possible by the enhanced range of this new-generation aircraft. I’m sure my route planning guys are now having a ball of time identifying destinations that are beyond the 4 hours’ range (a limitation placed on the A320 Classic) for once! This new generation of Airbus A320 NEO aircraft will definitely put us ahead of the competition and continue to be frontrunners in the ever volatile aviation industry.

Aside from the commercial benefit of enhanced range, the decision of taking up the A320 NEO aircraft is also to fulfil one of my personal crusades. Comes with large sharklets wing tip devices that boost fuel efficiency, which will enables savings of approximately 15% in fuel consumption per annum per aircraft also meant a reduction of carbon footprint by AirAsia aircraft in a world now that is already plagued by numerous natural disasters of late.

Enough said, I guess the best way to share is still visual appreciation as with the famous song goes “a picture paints a thousand words”:

Din, me and Tom Enders CEO of Airbus; and at the side are John Leahy Commercial Director Airbus and Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz Chairman of AirAsia X

Din, me, Tom and John

A cool picture of the AirAsia and GE team; me, Amin, Chris, Aireen, Kevin, Azhari and Stuart