Friday 29 Mar 2024
By
main news image

KUALA LUMPUR (March 27): Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, AirAsia Bhd's co-founder and group CEO, commented that the ailing Malaysia Airlines Bhd could be revived; however he is not keen on taking over the national carrier as he said his plate is full currently.

"There are fantastic people in Malaysia Airlines, it is a good brand... I think it could be turned around. I think it is not a wise idea to close it down, there should be good efforts to revive it," said Fernandes in an interview with Channel NewsAsia in Singapore.

Speculation is rife on whether the government will revisit the proposal on share swap between the controlling shareholders of AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines; to that question Fernandes commented that he is not keen on such a deal given the fact that AirAsia's current focal point is to expand into digital business.

"I already have a lot on my plate… my plate is full now... we want to expand our digital business," he said, noting that digital business is the next catalyst of growth for the airline.

To recap, in 2011, a deal was mooted between Khazanah Nasional Bhd and Fernandes' Tune Air Sdn Bhd, where Khazanah would swap a 20% stake in then-listed Malaysia Airlines System Bhd (MAS) for a 10% stake in AirAsia in order to synergise the two Malaysian-born airlines and reduce competition against the national carrier.

That deal was called off in 2012 amid pressure from MAS workers' union due to fear of job cuts.

Fernandes highlighted that AirAsia already has a plan mapped out to develop a digital platform to provide financial services and intra-Asean logistics service. "Amazon, which started as selling book, now they are selling cloud space... we are looking at digital business," said the controlling shareholder of AirAsia.

      Print
      Text Size
      Share