AirAsia’s Tony Fernandes on viral topless publish

AirAsia founder and CEO Tony Fernandes says he doesn’t remorse the viral LinkedIn publish that confirmed him receiving a therapeutic massage throughout a gathering — and that transparency is price potential controversy.

The Malaysian businessman is thought for an unfiltered method to posting on social media. He doesn’t get his posts vetted by his PR staff and needs to maintain it that approach, he advised CNBC in a wide-ranging interview final month.

“I’m clear, and social media permits me to be very clear. It has an obstacle, that folks will misrepresent and misunderstand Tony Fernandes the persona,” he mentioned.

Current broadly shared posts have seen Fernandes jokily inform off a passenger for bringing meals onto a flight, in opposition to the finances airline’s coverage. He additionally generated some skepticism after stating that he had been pressured to fly with rival Singapore Airways as a result of AirAsia flights had been full.

However by far the strongest response to a social media publish by Fernandes got here in October, when the businessman shared {a photograph} of himself shirtless within the workplace.

“Acquired to like Indonesia and AirAsia tradition that I can have a therapeutic massage and do a administration assembly,” the publish learn, prompting a slew of feedback and media protection.

Fernandes advised CNBC: “My well-known topless sports activities therapeutic massage was all about displaying our tradition, to be trustworthy, that we had such a versatile tradition. In fact, I obtained permission from everybody within the room to say, are you okay?”

“Initially I requested whether or not we might delay the assembly in order that I might have a therapeutic massage, I used to be in quite a lot of ache from quite a lot of flying. However the staff mentioned, we’re okay, you already know, nothing to cover. We would slightly not delay it. So I used to be truly posting to say, what an incredible tradition we’ve.”

Nonetheless, the message obtained twisted and prompted a backlash, he mentioned. Regardless of this, he insisted: “Do I remorse it? No. Acquired me quite a lot of publicity.”

Whereas a number of the on-line feedback poked enjoyable on the publish, others made extra critical objections, calling it inappropriate and observing that employees could have felt uncomfortable and unable to problem their boss.

“Applicable is no matter folks round you deem acceptable, proper? I might have had a gathering on the seashore with Richard Branson and my administration employees, and everybody would have mentioned, how cool is that?” Fernandes mentioned.

“You possibly can’t have a extra various airline similar to ours, our prime administration is usually ladies … we’ve such a flat, enjoyable, clear, direct tradition,” he added.

AirAsia’s oft-repeated origin story is that Fernandes and companions purchased the airline — which was then simply two plane and hundreds of thousands of Malaysian ringgit in debt — from the Malaysian authorities in 2001, for lower than one U.S. greenback.

It has since expanded to a fleet of greater than 200 plane with a concentrate on low-cost flights throughout the ten-nation ASEAN group and connections to the broader area. It at present operates beneath two firms, Capital A-owned Air Asia and the medium-haul Air Asia X.

Fernandes advised CNBC that pandemic struggles had necessitated a plan for “surviving,” which included organising logistics, engineering and digital divisions. Nonetheless, he now sees optimistic longer-term penalties for each AirAsia and the aviation trade on account of the turmoil, noting that each airways have been reporting file income.

“I feel we [now] have the most effective time in aviation,” he mentioned.

“If you concentrate on historical past of aviation, America went via plenty of ups and downs and quite a lot of consolidation … Europe went via the identical factor, there have been quite a lot of state-owned carriers which threw quite a lot of valuations out by loopy pricing, or state subsidies,” Fernandes added.

“ASEAN was in that place with quite a lot of state-owned airways being sponsored and throwing fares and being irresponsible. Covid has taught everybody a lesson. So that’s one optimistic for me, in that we now have a rational market.”

He mentioned fares had risen by 30% and weren’t coming down anytime quickly, with airline capability unlikely to alter over the subsequent 5 to 6 years. That is partially as a consequence of a backlog in plane orders that producers are struggling to maintain up with.

“We’ve got a bonus of a 400 aircraft order guide, however many airways haven’t got that … When you purchase a aircraft now you will not get one until 2031,” he mentioned.

Fernandes mentioned AirAsia had been “fortunate” as an Airbus-only buyer to swerve the continued turbulence at Boeing with its 737 Max plane, although he added that he believed the U.S. planemaker would “come out of [it] stronger.”