Sunday, July 13, 2008

Tony Fernandes Explained



It all triggered when I questioned Mr. Tony on certain issues affecting Air Asia & MAHB lately. Wangsa Maju MP YB Wee Choo Keong in one of his post titled "AirAsia owes MAHB RM110 million, not RM60 million as claimed by Tony Fernandes"

I guess YB Wee Choo Keong needs to listen not only to his sources but also listen what Mr. Tony has to say on this issue. AirAsia in fact had created history in Malaysian aviation industry. With AirAsia, everyone can fly affordably and will it be any good to tarnish or to kill them with all these accusations?

Here Tony explained,

to all who have commented on airasia and the recent statements on MAB.

It is a shame at some of the very strong remarks and dare I say hate with regards to airasia and myself.

I thought with more democracy there would be less hearsay and crticism would be on fact and that all would be given a fair hearing.

I have invited YB Wee to come to airasia and look at our books and grill me on all. We have nothing to hide and am very proud of what we have achieved in malaysia . We think the only way to get a fair hearing is for YB Wee to come over.

Some of you want airasia to go bust. Will that be good for malaysia . Remember what airfares were like when there was no Airasia. And for those who dislike me so much if we go bust what about the 6,500 employees who work for us. What about the people who never had a chance to be a pilot in MAS or an engineer. What about the guy with no SPM and was carrying bags for us who is sitting his final exams to be a pilot .

50 million people have flown since we started many who never had a chance to fly.
If we are so politically strong why are we still fighting for a level playng field . Why cant we get all routes, why cant we fly out of subang when firefly can.

We have no union in airasia because people are treated fairly . I may run out of space so will reply on mab in next post.

We have never been treated favourably over mas. All I want is a level playing field . We are still treated unfavourably. For the record airasia owes not a cent to MAS. Our purported debts to MAB is from 2006 not 2002 when we moved to the LCCT.

We do not own the LCCT , malaysian airports do and 4 other airlines use it . We actually saved the country a fortune . If MAB did not build the LCCT they would have had to build a premium terminal which would have cost in the region of 2 Billion. There was no room to accomodate both Airasia and MAS in KLIA.

Kamarudin,Aziz and myself have worked like dogs to get to where we are. Nothing came easy for us and still doesnt.

We have won Airline of the year twice beating airine such as SIA , Cathay, Emirates. We were voted Worlds most innovative company with google , apple , Nike. In total we have won 36 awards. No one could influence in wining these awards.
I hold no malice on anyone who dislikes us or whacks us , all I ask is give me , din or aziz a fair hearing.

And help us level the playing field. Email me , come see me . Im always at the LCCT and ask me whatever.

I love my staff all 6,500 . They have done an aweome job and I am very proud of what all of us has achieved. All through hard work and not through cronyism. Please ask me or email me if you feel anything is airasia has resulted from cronyism and I will gladly answer. I will reply on MAB in a few minutes

kind regards,
tony airasia


And to reply to MAB, Tony commented,

To all on MAB .

First point to note is terminal is owned by Malaysian airports and paid for by goverment who pay a lease to goverment. Airasia asked to build the terminal with its own funds but that was rejected by the goverment.

MAB is a GLC owned by khazana and 30 percent owned by the public . Khazana also own MAS.
Airasia is owned 15 percent by me ,13 percent by Kamarudin , 3 percent by Aziz .The rest 69 percent is owned by the public with over 120,000 shareholders. The biggest shareholder being EPF with 6 percent.

We have been accused of having anada krishnan as a shareholder , mokzani mahatir as a shareholder and now khairy Jamaluddin. As you can see if all of these guys were shareholders we would have very little . And I am happy to do a statutory declaration on that once and for all. It is sad for me and aziz and din.

On MAB the debts that are disputed are from the time we moved in 2006 to the LCCT not 2002 as has been reported. We have paid MAB 300 million rinigitt since we started in 2002.

The disputes arise from the fact that we made many sacrifices in making sure the low cost terminal was cheap for the goverment in anticipation of lower charges. How anyone can charge the same for a terminal that cost 150 million ringitt vs one that costs 2 billion. We dont have walkalotrs , we have less chairs passnager comfort in he main terminal is 55 meters per square meter per passanger vs 7 meters square per passanger at the lcct. Our passangers have to walk a long way as we squeezed more planes into the tarmac. We have no aerobrdge , no computerised baggae, when it rains heavily we cant board passangers. Car park is open air. It is muc further away than tha main terminal .

That is why we have been asking for lower charges which is justifiable.

Of the 100 million, 30 million of for bills that wont due and mab had not booked in our payments. That bings us to 70 million. Of that 12 million is disputed back to 2004 on wording which ahs been resolved.

The balance 52 million is resulting from what we believe is overcharging and that is mediated by the respective ministries.

All moneys have been accrued.

I ask you too to come and pay me a visit to learn more about airasia. We have been good for the country , created many jobs in tourism and avaition related sectors. We have carried the malaysian brand very far. We have beaten the singaporeans.
All we ask is a fair hearing and a level playing field.

Thank you to all for reading this and hopefully you will give us a fair hearing,

kind regards,
tony airasia



Now what say you?

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