AirAsia’s Tony Fernandes says no to any involvement with ailing Malaysia Airlines

The chief executive says he is focused on growing the budget airline he co-founded rather than any attempt to rescue the loss-making national carrier

But he has welcomed Malaysia Airlines’ recent tie-up with Singapore Airlines, saying the partnership will help improve AirAsia

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Tony Fernandes, speaking on the sidelines of the RISE technology conference in Hong Kong, says he is “focused on AirAsia”. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 9:00pm, 9 Jul 2019Updated: 11:14am, 10 Jul 2019

AirAsia chief Tony Fernandes has ruled out any involvement with Malaysia’s ailing national airline, which is at risk of being sold or shut down, saying the profitable budget airline he co-founded is focused on growing organically and speeding up its push to become a digital enterprise.

Fernandes – group chief executive officer of Southeast Asia’s largest budget carrier, which flew some 80 million passengers last year – was asked about Malaysia Airlines (MAS) as Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Tuesday said he was considering four proposals to resuscitate the carrier.

These were mostly from local companies, who offered to either buy a stake in the flag carrier or to manage it, Mahathir said.

Said Fernandes: “I am not sure how many languages I have to say it in. I am on this big journey of transforming AirAsia. AirAsia is focused on AirAsia.”

But the 55-year-old, who spoke to the South China Morning Post on the sidelines of the RISE technology conference in Hong Kong on Tuesday, welcomed MAS’ recent move to expand its cooperation with Singapore Airlines (SIA), saying the expanded partnership would in turn improve AirAsia.

“As long as the competition is fair competition then I have got to be better,” Fernandes explained. “Competition is what makes us better. I don’t want anyone or anything to be blocked from doing a decent business, saving jobs or creating jobs.”

The aviation entrepreneur said he was more cautious about competition, after experiencing 18 years of “unfair competition” which led to rivals being bailed out by competitors or AirAsia being blocked from flying to a certain destination to protect the interests of competing carriers.