Fernandes keeps it simple, sees a big year for liberalisation
Tags :
Southeast Asia,
AirAsia
(CAPA) Tony Fernandes, CEO of AirAsia, the CAPA Airline of the Year, told the Centres Outlook Summit in Singapore that one of biggest keys to his carrier's continuing success is keeping every level of his operation as free of complexity as possible. We believe in the KISS principle keep it simple, stupid, he says.
This approach, he notes, marks AirAsia as distinct from the competition. "I've never seen an industry that likes to unnecessarily complicate things as much as the airlines," the former music industry executive says, vowing that he spends 50% of his time "trying to keep bureaucracy from creeping into the system".
Looking to the future, the iconic airline's CEO sees a big year for his airline to continue expanding throughout its "ASEAN backyard", a development he sees catalysed in large part by Malaysia's move to open up the highly symbolic Kuala Lumpur-Singapore route ahead of ASEAN's capital city liberalisation programme. "It's a watershed in aviation that it's opening," he says, adding that he hopes to initiate service between the two cities by Dec-07.
Speaking of the benefits that this newly opened market will bring for consumers, Mr Fernandes points to the current fares commanded on the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur route. "A half-hour flight that is closed has ticket prices of MYR800. That's what we're going to charge on our flights to Gold Coast," he laughed, referencing the launch of his long-haul affiliate, which will make its first flight on 02-Nov-07.
Date posted: 02-Nov-07
Other AirAsia News |
Fernandes keeps it simple, sees a big year for liberalisation 
