Tony Fernandes CEO Blog

I received this letter late last week and I thought I’d share it with you. This just goes to show that we’ve come a long way since we first met because when we first met in 2007 it wasn’t in the best of terms and now just a couple of years down, here we are working together to better educate ourselves on the needs of everyone who would fly.

It is amazing and blows me away to have these disabled friends of ours, understanding where we are as a LCC and their unrelenting commitment to make the LCC work for disabled guests and everyone in general, with what we have and mind you which is with limited resources and the airport layout. That itself is humbling indeed and from the bottom of our hearts we thank you BEAT!

Barrier-free Environment and Accessible Transport (BEAT),
c/o No 4, Lorong 1A/71 J,
Jalan Carey, 46000 Petaling Jaya.

15 November 2011

AirAsia Berhad,
LCC Terminal, Jalan KLIA S3,
Southern Support, Zone KLIA,
64000 Sepang, Selangor Darul Ehsan.

Attention : Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, Group CEO AirAsia Berhad,
Mr. Bo Lingam, Head of Operations and Planning, AirAsia Berhad.

Dear Tan Sri Tony and Bo,

We, at BEAT, feel very honoured to be given the opportunity to be involved and to support AirAsia in providing training for your staff. Thank you, AirAsia for giving BEAT the full trust and confidence to develop the cross disability training syllabus and modules and to conduct the training.

We are also thankful to be given the opportunity by AirAsia to introduce Disability Equality Training (“DET”) on top of the Disability Related Service Training (“DRST”). DET gives us a correct understanding of disability issues from the perspective of equality and justice. With DET, DRST will be properly understood, better appreciated and more effective.

BEAT wants to give maximum credit to Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, group CEO of AirAsia, for it was Tan Sri Tony who recognised that the training would be best conducted by and with the involvement of disabled people themselves - the end users of the service. It was Tan Sri Tony who invited BEAT to be involved in the training.

As a gesture of his commitment, Tan Sri presented BEAT the AirAsia cap he was wearing on when he met us on 20th July,2007, with his hand written wordings “To all my BEAT friends”, “You have my 100% commitment", and “Dare to dream”. These words which came directly from Tan Sri himself had given us great motivation to give all our best to support AirAsia in the effort to further improve the service to include disabled passengers. Knowingly or unknowingly, Tan Sri Tony has helped put into practice our very famous slogan “Nothing about us without us”. Thank you, again, Tan Sri !
As part of our mission is to work towards a better and accessible environment and an inclusive society including improved services, we see it as part of our responsibility to offer and share our knowledge, experience and expertise because we know best our own needs and how we want to be served. BEAT is fully committed and proud to be working in partnership with AirAsia in implementing change for better and improved service. We know that the good service will ultimately benefit us and the community at large.

May we also take this opportunity to put on record our special thanks and deepest appreciation to Mr. Bo Lingam, Head of Operations and Planning, who was entrusted by Tan Sri, to work with us for the past 3 ½ years. To mention a few, we found Bo to be friendly, easy going, trusting, understanding, accepting, accommodating, fair, reasonable, open minded, and fun to work with and to be with. In short, we have “fallen in love” with him  More importantly, Bo has been able to work with us not just as a working partner but as a friend.

Over the few years of working together, Bo has been able to better understand our struggle and appreciate us for who we are. On most occasions, Bo would make his time available even after office hours to accommodate our timing as many of us work during day time. He would let us decide on the venue of meeting most accessible to us. At times, when we had more issues to work at, the meetings would be dragged till late nights and Bo would stay put throughout every meeting session. There were also occasions when Bo sacrificed his Saturday mornings to meet us. Thank you, Bo for your full support and commitment!

Through Bo and his team, we have got many changes implemented. Among them - the terms and conditions which were discriminatory and unfair towards disabled passengers have been removed. Disabled people who travel unaccompanied are now able to travel on AirAsia. Online bookings are now made possible. Disabled passengers are no more required to sign Indemnity Forms. RM 12 is no more charged for usage of each wheelchair. Special assistance is given upon request without charge. Aisle chair made available when a disabled passenger is on board. Passenger boarding lift made available at LCCT upon request. Special Assistance Service Counter established at LCCT. Developed DET&DRST cross disability training syllabus and modules and mainstreaming them as part of the overall syllabus conducted at AirAsia Academy. Syabas, Bo and Team!

In the face of alternative training offers by local and international groups, Bo recognized the effort, commitment and past record of BEAT and stood by us. Bo maintained that BEAT would continue with the training in Malaysia and also help to extend the training to Thailand and Indonesia. Hence, Bo was in fact instrumental in realising the recently concluded DET&DRST Training of Trainers involving participants from Thailand and Indonesia. Thank you, Bo!

Now that Bo has “left us” for greater tasks else where in AirAsia, we sincerely wish him the best in all his undertakings. We assure you, Bo, that we will give our full support to Zaman and team as we continue the good work you have laid down.

To Bo, we thank you for all that you have been to us. Please do drop by and visit us as and when your time permits. We know that we are not only going to miss you but we will miss you a whole lot!

Warm regards,
Christine & Team,
B.E.A.T. Malaysia.

Recently, some good friends of mine and fans of AirAsia have alerted me on the resurfacing of the email with subject title “AirAsia Compromise on Safety and Regulations”. This email has been on circulation for sometime despite an article on our Travel 360 magazine and abundance of article in the web on 25 minutes turn-around time.
Interestingly, a representative from the Ministry of Transport (MOT) also raised a reply upon receipt of the said email of which I’m in copy. I would like to share the reply here with all of you:

“Dear Friend,

All Malaysian airlines including AirAsia are subjected to the safety regulations/standards set by the Department of Civil Aviation, Malaysia. In fact these standards are higher than that set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). ICAO is made up 190 countries and we are one of them. All planes are also subjected to scheduled checks by the DCA to ascertain whether they are airworthy, if they are not, than I am afraid to say that they will not be allowed to fly.

The ICAO also does annual checks on safety standards of all the airlines of its member countries including Malaysia. Only recently, the ICAO did their safety audit on Malaysia and the results were thumbs -up.

Countries like UK and Australia will not accept Airasia if it is not up to the safety standards. UK has ban many airlines such from Indonesia and the Philippines. Australia has recently banned Tiger Airways from Singapore (imagine Singapore, the so call the safety standards bearers). Qantas, Australia has had the same safety problems as Tiger etc.

And again, comparing a LCC with a Full Service Carrier is not a fair comparison at all. And I am not sure how you come to the conclusion that Lufthansa is a reputable airline!

There are many types of air travel which we can choose, if we are not satisfied with one.

Whenever you are free, please make an appointment with me so that I could bring you to DCA and show you the safety standards of our airlines.

“Always the other side of the grass is greener”

Tks

XXXXXXXXX
Undersecretary of Aviation
Ministry of Transport, Malaysia
Tel: XXXXXX”
In addition to the above, I also wish to highlight the fact that before AirAsia is permitted to fly to or operate in a particular country; its Aviation Authority (equivalent to Department of Civil Aviation in Malaysia) would scrutinize our adherence to safety regulations and standards by benchmarking it against our Maintenance Program (which includes the 25 minutes turn-around check). Unless and until the Maintenance Program received approval, we won’t get clearance to get in to the respective countries.
Back in Malaysia, our renewal of Air Operator Certificate, which is on annual basis, would also be in jeopardy if safety standards are not met.
Final food for thought: How would AirAsia compromise on safety when it has the youngest fleet in the region and is the single biggest purchaser of Airbus A320 planes in the world?
So now you decide if this is truth or myth?

Since the 2008 general election, one particular MP has been obsessed with us and has been obsessed with AirAsia.

He claimed we would go bust so we shouldn’t collect money up front and that the government would have to bail us out; he goes on and on about us owing Malaysian Airpots RM 120 million two years ago. The list is endless.

Now he’s attacking us on the MAS-AirAsia shareholder share swap.

I wonder what his constituents think of his antics. Many of them use AirAsia thanks to our affordable fares; some of them even work for AirAsia. Rather than support us, this MP seems to want us to go bust and make 9,000 people jobless. STRANGE for an elected Wakil Rakyat. And his dislike of me personally is just immense. After all I have done for this country.

It’s a free world and he can feel what he wants but as an elected representative, he should come visit us at AirAsia and find out for himself. I’ll be more than happy to meet with him. In fact, I’ve invited him many, many times. Good leaders should listen to all sides and get the facts instead of just venting.

Come take a look at the LCCT . See if we should be paying half of the charges levied at the Main Terminal of KLIA. Are the services and facilities provided at LCCT equivalent to half of those at the Main terminal? I dare say they are only 30 percent.

This MP claims to be a “man of the people.” Yet he was happy for Malaysian Airports to raise airport charges. Which would have meant that his constituents would have to pay more for air travel. Like I said earlier, STRANGE.

So, YB for Wangsa Maju, here’s another invitation: Come and see me, come and see what an amazing job the staff of AirAsia have done and how they’ve helped 130 million people fly to places and at fares they never believed they could do before.

Come visit us, YB and to all YB too, ask whatever you would like and let’s find a way for Malaysia to win.

Recently, there has been a lot of talk about unions. AirAsia has 9,000 staff and no unions. Why? Because we look after our staff. You only need unions if management doesn’t take care of the staff.

AirAsia staff are paid well, they get an annual bonus and are provided with opportunities for career advancement. The company does well, and so do they.

I’m not sure what some unions do. Are unions democratic, do they represent all the staff? Some union leaders have been in office for years. Are they benefitting themselves or the staff?

Yes, worker’s rights are important but I still feel dialogue is the best way forward. We should all win together.

What a dream come true. Was a poor result on Sunday but that does not deter me . I love it.

When you lose a class player like Traore and then his back up Connoley, it’s going to hurt. Then you bring Orr out and move Luke Young to the left side. And at warm up,Yiu – the third choice centre back pulls a hamstring. Total disruption.

Anyway we get Gabiddon, and Traore back for Blackburn. Let’s see.

Think we have a good squad, though it needs to be strengthened in the January transfer window. But this is a long road; we should be attacking more at home, maybe play with two strikers. it’s good to have Mackie back.

But I’m thrilled. This year is about avoiding relegation, sorting out our future home, building a good squad, build new training facilities and a new academy and growing new commercial opportunities.

I’m loving it! Going to be some tough weeks ahead but I love it when my back is against the wall. See you at Loftus Road Oct. 15.

I have been travelling quite a fair bit lately and once in a while I receive letters like this and it really makes it worth while.

Thank you Andrew Ciseau of Brisbane, Australia. I’d also like to hear from you out there and help us make it better for you.

Good afternoon Tony,

My name is Andrew Ciseau from Brisbane, Australia, and I am writing to you to provide some feedback on my recent trip on AirAsia and AirAsia X.

It has been just over 3 years since I last travelled multiple legs on AirAsia, and I must say I am impressed with how things have changed.

The biggest thing I think you have achieved is consistency of product and service. My flights from Gold Coast, KL, Langkawi, Penang, Singapore and back home again were all of a high standard of customer service, as well as travel experience. Everything from the plane décor and food were consistent, which for a traveller is very comforting when visiting new places. This is in stark contrast to my last AirAsia experience which started with the old IT system which was anything but user friendly, and didn’t get much better after that. However it is good to see just how your product can shine once you have all of the ‘backbone’ infrastructure in place and settled down.

One thing I would suggest is that you start marketing yourself in Australia as a Low Cost, but high quality service airline. The LCC offerings in Australia, have had customer service levels driven to the lowest common denominator, which in my opinion has tainted the LCC market here. Your product is not in the same league as these LCC carriers, so you really do need to get the message out just how far your product has come. After my experience, I would not hesitate to travel anywhere with your carrier given the outstanding value it represents when compared to a full service legacy carrier, and the service offering was more than adequate. People need to know why this is.

To be fair, there is still room for improvement in some quarters. Like all airlines and airports, Terminal information screens are vital, particularly for visitors from overseas. I noticed many of these boards were slow to update, and in some cases passengers lined up at gates for boarding, when the aircraft was in fact delayed, but no announcements made, or screens updated. These are the little things which should be getting done right. Technology means that as soon as the arriving aircraft departs, electronic messaging means someone, somewhere knows how late or early it will be in most cases, it doesn’t take much to publish this information on displays.

Also, on the whole I am not a fan of the KLIA LCC terminal. On your first visit you are simply overwhelmed by the size of the place, the different location of check-in areas, and odd signage and counter numbers. I don’t have any particular suggestions for improvements, however it just seems to be harder than it needs to be.

On the whole I am very excited about the future of your airlines, and the competition and services you provide to Australia, and beyond. I am not afraid to tell people why this is.

I thank you for your time.

Regards,
Andrew Ciseau

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

Remember the Banting to Bologna story? Mohd Zulfahmi Khairuddin was then just a wild card draw rider and boy did we have belief in him. Fahmi is one of those little raw diamonds that we’d love to polish and get him up to his best.

Just his second season and he has made waves in the 125cc MotoGP. This boy debuted at 24th placing and has made it all the way to 10th placing! That is what we call belief and development.

It was such a rush to see him at the Spanish MotoGP, first it was great seeing all our 5 riders being in the top 13 and with the wet conditions it was just mad.

Fahmi rode on to 13th placing at the 12th lap and by the last 4 laps he was pushing on to 12thplacing.

By the time he got on to the final lap he pushed it and finished a cool 10th placing! A real great day for Malaysian motorcycle sports and you could see true satisfaction, when he punched the air in victory.

This has tripled his championship points to 6 points and placed him at 15th in the overall championship standing.

This just goes to show that with passion, believe and development we can be the best in the world.

To think that it all began with a dream, just like AirAsia. We have all these talents driven by passion and what better way to develop their true potential then giving them the opportunity and believing in them.
I’ve not stopped dreaming the impossible; we did in Malaysia, Asean and next stop the world!

Well Done Fahmi! You definitely deserve a Hero’s welcome, enjoy your vacation and welcome home.