Tony Fernandes, the feisty owner of AirAsia, has focussed his sights on India. Making his no-frills model work here won't be easy
The Genghis Khan of air travel in Asia has arrived. This guy is known to do to fares what the Mongolian warrior legend did to traitors’ heads: Chop them. His slash-and-burn has already begun. His airline AirAsia is offering a return ticket to Malaysia from Indian cities for less than Rs. 10,000, half the price that everyone else is charging. “At these prices, demand is a no-brainer. Full-service airlines like Malaysia Airlines, Jet Airways and Thai stand no chance,” says Madhav Oza, director of Blue Star Travels, one of the country’s largest travel companies.
Smoking Aces
Call it tsunami marketing. That’s how Kathleen Tan, who heads the airline’s commercial operations in India, describes their approach. “We do not believe in half measures,” she says. AirAsia group’s entry into India will be through three separate companies — a strategy never tried by any other airline before. The Government of India clearances weren’t easy, but are now finally in place. The Sepang-based parent AirAsia Bhd will start flights from Kuala Lumpur to Hyderabad, Banglore and Chennai in stages this year. This is in addition to Trichy, Kolkata, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram, which are already connected. Thai AirAsia (a joint venture with Shin Corp) will start with flights from Bangkok to four points in India later this year. This will open up Phuket, Krabi and nine other points in Thailand to passengers from India, who can connect to them from the AirAsia Bangkok hub. The third company, the group’s long-haul airline AirAsia X (a venture with the Virgin group) will start flying to Mumbai and Delhi by the middle of the year with bigger A330 planes.
(This story appears in the 19 February, 2010 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)