All Pakatan MPs were invited by Air Asia to attend its dinner function on 16th July 2008. I did not realise there was such an invitation until the PR personnel of Air Asia called me personally. She said she has passed the invitation card to the PR secretariat but many of the MPs did not receive it.
I don’t like last minute invitation, however, I decided to attend the dinner after I finished work at my Shah Alam office. The reason I was able to attend was because I sacrificed my once a week jogging time.
When I went into the dinner function room in a hotel, Tony Fernandez was about to start his briefing about Air Asia. He revealed a few things to us:
i) They started the low cost airline business with only RM1 million in hand;
ii) Air Asia doesn’t own LCCT, LCCT was built by the government and they were forced to pay rental to government, and the rental is as high as KLIA, which they were greatly dissastified. I always thought that LCCT is owned by Air Asia, now only I realised that it is not Air Asia’s property;
iii) Air Asia doesn’t belong to any UMNO big boys like the famous son of Dr M nor the famous son-in-law. It is a public listed company and Tony Fernandez only holds 15% of the shares, which is the highest share ownership;
iv) Air Asia always give chance to its employees to climb the higher staircase in their career, so some of their pilots were actually air-steward or ticket counter staffs.
Tony told us that LCCT cannot cope with the tremendous increase of passengers now. They are hoping to have a land to build an airport city that can meet the increase of passengers. Wao, he is really a man who dare to dream, this is the spirit of entrepreneur. I hope his dream can come true.
I am slightly taller than Tony Fernandez 🙂
The great employees behind Tony Fernandez. The lady on the left is Yap Mun Ching (former Malaysiakini reporter), the woman next to me is Mandy Ooi, my PA at Shah Alam office.
time changes. anybody from DAP before the GE was deemed a no-no in business world needing favours from the gomen.
now I have seen YB in SP Setia and Air Asia function. Such is the reality …. but it is a deserved recognition.
hmmm…Tony cannot resist your charm, izzit?
Actually…
Exercise (aerobically) thrice a week, each with 30 minutes, is quite important… 😛 Jogging only once a week (and some more abandoned it) is not enough lah… 😛
Am glad that you didn’t really blog much about your work but your life instead… Remember reading from Mdm. Lung from Taiwan that she never wrote a word about her work when she was working in Taipei local government… 😉
Please dont get fooled by this PR exercise. I know you’re part of the government and have to be seen as pro-business. But this guy is full of double speak and a real spoilt brat. Shahrizat asked him to campaign for her and he obliged. What was that all about Tony? And he owes MAB RM120 million. How come he gets away with it? He seems to always want his way.And the government seems to oblige. Whoever criticizes MAS and praise this guy to the heavens, please bear in mind that MAS belongs to all of us. Yes, the government has a share and it belongs to taxpayers. Air Asia is his and his and his! No doubt on the surface, no UMNO boys is a shareholder. But who does he think we are? Fools? He will be a very stupid businessman to put an UMNO big wig on his payroll. We all know how it works in this country Tony! Nominees are a dime a dozen in this country. He has his way with the UMNO boys all the time. Look at the amount of concessions that he gets from the government. Kalimullah is on the Board of Directors, a friend of KJ’s. Dont you guys see that the publicity he gets from NST are all positive whereas MAS gets a fair share of criticisms. At the end of the day, he is a businessman and businessman will pamper to the powers that be. When PR gets to be the government, we will see how he conducts himself again. You wouldnt want him to campaign for you would you??
Hi, Teresa @ Sassy Kok
^_^ DAP logo is RED is match with AirAsia LOL 🙂
got any more cheaper ticket?? Heheh..
Alot “Liang Moi”…… :-p
Hi Teresa good to see u in the
press + as always..giving your best!!
However pls use your judgement +
evaluate that what u see on the surface
may not be the truth.(x-files!!)
Dato Tony will sweet talk u + tell
u all the sob stories to get your sympathy
+ rally behind him.
The way he puts it is that he has done
such a great deal+ sacrifice for the country
+ he deserves to be treated with respect +
provided with lots of incentives.
ie.- Forego paying landing fees ??
-Throwing back the fokker routes/planes back to
the govt + Mas wo paying the $40mil repairs??
Then forming Fax to fly international??
I agree with rzs. Being in the state govt now you have to be wary of businessmen who wants to be friendly with you. Not to say all of them have ulterior motives but many of them do …. they want to be pally 2x with those in power so that you can scratch their backs too when they scratch yours.
Tony Fernandez:
He looks good
He sounds good
But, he isn’t that good.
He and his company are good because he has unfair advantages.
Someone is behind the scene.
Now everyone can fly, then the crony is benefited.
I know it’s hard, but each time you want to fly, please think about the crony behind the scene.
Michael Ng
I agree with rzs. Being in the state govt now you have to be wary of businessmen who wants to be friendly with you. Not to say all of them have ulterior motives but many of them do …. they want to be pally 2x with those in power so that you can scratch their backs too when they scratch yours.
Teresa, remember to keep them at two arm’s length!
While it is hard to judge a person’s or company’s real intention, it could possibly be a PR excercise or lobbying efforts.
Besides all other elements, what needs to be evaluated is that at the end of the day, considering what Air Asia is asking, will it be beneficial to Malaysians in the long run?
To me Tony Fernandez is somebody enjoy watching young and old people running to get a good seat on the plane. He gets the thrill from seeing all this running. Is it that difficult to give a seat no when you check in? Don’t give me the crap that it can’t be done or this is some business thingy.
As a shareholder of AirAsia and a frequent traveller of AirAsia, some of the comments posted are unfair.Over the past 5 years, my family and friends have travelled to so many destinations that AirAisa flies to. Many of the tickets, we got them for free and of course u pay for the usual fuel, admin and airpoirt charges. AirAsia has made it affordable for all Malaysians to travel cheaply. Prior to AirAsia, you had to pay an arm a leg to fly to KK and now its a fraction if you book early and even if you are last minute traveller, you still get a good deal.
I agree with AirAsia’s Tony Fernandes that he should not pay to MAHB the the current rate when the AirAsia terminal is very basic. Common sense should dictate, when you stay in a 3 star hotel, why should you pay 5 star prices?
I was at the terminal last week to catch a flight to Macau, it was so packed, even my taxi had to squeeze in the departure lane to let me off. The aircon is crappy, the international departure hall was packed and i didnt get a seat to sit for the 45 minutes i was there. Food was crappy at the cafe and expensive. On my return, it was chaos outside the airport as MAHB is expanding the airport and have moved the bus stand further down. no proper area to sit and it was bloody hot.
Compare the LCC terminal to the Main Terminal, AirAisa should ask for a 75% discount. No buts about it. The airport authorities are ineffcient. They dont run their company as business. Most of them are government bureacrats.Its clear to any businessman that you cannot charge the same price as what you charge at the main terminal. I did read that AirAsia have raised thier objections to the government and why are they not arbitrating on this for the past 6 years?
I hope Tony Fernandez does not succumb to pressure and pay MAHB. I rather he gives us travellers cheaper fare and us shareholders a dividen since AirAsia share price is going up now.
Btw, YB Teresa, can you and you band of brothers do someting about taxi drivers who fleece us all passengers and of course all of them complain that the taxis dont belong to them and the companies are cheating the taxi drivers. Vicious cylcle. From the womb to the tomb you are screwed.
I totally agreed. Have you use the public toilets at the LCCT lately? Compare this with the toilets at KLIA? What about the parking? Charges are almost the same and all this under the sun.
Should you be paying the same amount to the anyone if they provide you with different benefits/treatment?
Did anyone realise that taxi fares are much more expensive going to and fro to LCCT then KLIA? If AirAsia pays without negotiating, then we the public may end up losing and paying more for less facilities.