AirAsia’s Tony Fernandes on being ‘loyal to China’, Comac’s allure and Asean expansion

The Malaysian budget airline’s CEO talks fleet expansion, the rebound in travel demand and his retirement plans in a wide-ranging interview

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How AirAsia’s Tony Fernandes is steering his budget airline toward post-pandemic recovery

Amy Sood

Published: 12:00pm, 23 Nov 2024Updated: 12:57pm, 23 Nov 2024

AirAsia is aiming to partner with China’s state-owned aircraft manufacturer to expand its fleet and increase its presence across Southeast Asia to meet rising travel demand in the post-pandemic era, according to Tony Fernandes, the Malaysian budget airline’s chief executive.

In an exclusive interview with This Week in Asia during a recent visit to Hong Kong, Fernandes said that the turbulence in the travel industry caused by the pandemic was coming to an end.

He revealed that AirAsia is in talks to purchase new planes from European manufacturer Airbus and Brazil-based Embraer, while also considering aircraft from the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac).

“We’re talking to everyone,” he said. “We would be foolish not to. I go out there publicly and say, ‘never underestimate the Chinese’. You only have to look at their mobile phones. You have to look at their internet technology.”

Fernandes acknowledged that discussions were still in the early stages, but said “the world needs more than two manufacturers”, referring to Shanghai-based Comac, which is viewed as a potential rival to challenge the dominance of Airbus and Boeing in the aircraft market.

These negotiations offer AirAsia a chance to grow its fleet long-term amid an ongoing supply crunch, but currently, the airline is focused on consolidating the capacity it lost during the pandemic and getting planes back in the air.

“The big problem was getting our planes back. We didn’t have a big benefactor,” he said. “We’ve had no real financial assistance from any government, and so we had to put 250 planes back into operation, which was not an easy task.”