Three days have passed since Tony Fernandes left India. But the dust he kicked up is yet to settle. Fernandes, group CEO of Malaysian low-cost carrier AirAsia, landed in India on a whistle-stop tour last Saturday, about five months after announcing plans to create an airline in India partnering the Tata group.
Wherever he went, a procession of microphones and flashbulbs followed because it soon became clear his trip was going to be vastly different from the visits of foreign CEOs, who with their carefully-chosen words, would give diplomats a run for their money. Fernandes, in contrast, was not afraid to name the big guns, notably blaming Jet Airways' Naresh Goyal for lobbying for a restrictive rule in aviation. In Delhi, he drew plenty of chuckles, guffaws and belly laughs from the audience.
One reporter asked him if he had plans to buy Air India, the government-run carrier. After the tiniest of pauses, Fernandes said: "I've heard plenty of crazy things during this trip. But you, sir, win the prize." He offered the journalist and his wife a free ticket to anywhere AirAsia flies. On why AirAsia would focus on south India, he said that's because Mittu (Chandilya, the CEO of AirAsia India) and S Ramadorai (chairman) are from there and they are very nationalistic. Journalists might well have been watching Jay Leno at work.
If the straight talk and jokes were aimed at creating a buzz around the launch of the airline, it worked. Fernandes displayed in abundance his sharp understanding of the aviation business. About the rationale behind free ticketing ? a key strategy of AirAsia ? he reminded everyone that the journalist was offered only a one-way ticket.
"We are going to charge a fortune for his return trip," he said. Tony Fernandes, the successful aviation entrepreneur (see Aviation), came, saw and left no one in doubt about his ambitions for the Indian aviation market. The visit to India burnished his reputation.
Sour Story
Yet, not everything Fernandes has touched has turned into gold. There have been failures ? a recent one actually. AirAsia was forced to end a joint venture with ANA Holdings in Japan. True to form, Fernandes glossed over the failure with a joke. "ANA was horrible in bed," he said. Seriously.
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