Dinesh Krishnan / Forbes inDiaTony Fernandes, group CEO of AirAsia, says india is not a simple country to operate in.
it’s a complicated nation, further complicated by very aggressive competitorsdoing it right. For me, the India story
is all about when a taxi driver who
picked me up from New Delhi airport
told me that it took him four days
to go from the capital to Chennai. I
was shocked. I asked him how much
did it cost and what price would
he would pay to fly, and he gave me
a figure. We are about two-thirds
of the way in making him fly.
There has been so much opposition
to us, some of it our doing and
some mistakes of our own.
We have had so much noise on this
airline [AirAsia India]—we were
involved in things, with issues
concerning the Tatas, that we
weren’t even involved in. But the
Tatas have been great partners.
They have stuck in with us and
we have stuck in with them.
India is not a simple country. It’s a
complicated country and further
complicated by very aggressive
competitors. I have been in 10
other countries and we have
never had this kind of reaction:
The level of trying to get rid of us
is much worse here in India.
Q Can you elaborate on the
‘mistakes of our own’?
Well, actually, only one I think, which
I don’t want to talk about. Everything
else we have done well. We are three
years old in India, that’s baby steps for
an airline compared to Jet Airways
that has been around for more than
20 years. I’m really happy with the
way we are going. We have 10 planes
now and will get to 20 aircraft next
year. India is a country I don’t want
to screw up [in]! I want to do it right.
Q What are your plans
for flying to international
destinations from India?
Initially we thought we couldn’t make
money in the domestic market, but
now we know that we can. I thought
domestic was crowded and we were
late into the game. But we are not.
In some markets, we are leaders. We
are the lowest cost airline—we are
lower than IndiGo, which is quite
impressive. So, international is not
such a rush for me anymore. But when
it happens, which would be sometime
next year, we would offer a good mix
of domestic and international routes.Q Asean apart, would you like to
own 100 percent of AirAsia India
given that the Indian government
has given you an overseas
citizen of India (OCI) status?
I never really looked at that. It never
should be me personally because there
should not be any conflict of interest.It should be AirAsia that should own
100 percent. To that effect, I would
like to see the rule that allows foreign
airlines to own up to 49 percent in
an Indian airline changed. At the
moment we have no reason to change
(the shareholding structure of AirAsia
India). We are getting along well
with the Tatas. But of course as an
airline, it is my core business, it’s not
the Tatas’ core business. They have
several other businesses. If I [AirAsia]
could own 100 percent, why not?
(The writer travelled to Paris
at the invitation of AirAsia)August 4, 2017 forbes india | 69