by Yeoh Siew hoon
Tony Fernandes could not resist his customary dig at Singapore and Singapore Airlines at this week’s CAPA Aviation Awards night where he picked up the Airline of the Year award.
“My team and I flew to Senai and took the bus across because we are not allowed to fly to Singapore … yet, he said.
“I also want to say something about the SIA Suites on the A380. We will also have Sky Suites on AirAsia X except we will also provide girls,” he said.
“How about boys?” I asked during our interview session at the awards.
“Boys, girls, whatever you like.”
“So you will really be living up to your name of Air Asia X, then? X-rated?”
“No, X stands for Extra Long. You want to go there?”
Two days after he picked the award which he said establishes AirAsia as an airline to be reckoned with – no longer just a low cost player – ASEAN transport ministers announced open skies across the region by December 2008.
This means that ASEAN airlines will be able to pick up passengers from any ASEAN capital and fly them to other ASEAN destinations.
IATA’s spokesman, Anthony Concil, said, “Clearly this is a big and concrete step in the right direction. What we are seeing is that ASEAN has picked up the ball and is moving forward.”
The most prized route being eyed is the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur sector and Malaysia has proposed to Singapore that low cost carriers from each side be allowed to operate two daily flights between the two cities – a total of four flights a day.
And the battle has begun to see who will be the lucky two that will get the rights.
So will it be Tiger Airways or Jetstar Asia from Singapore? Or AirAsia or Firefly from the Malaysian side? Firely last month received government approval to operate domestic and international routes from four hubs in Malaysia – Penang, Subang, Johor Bahru and Kota Kinabalu.
Observers say it is most likely that the subsidiaries of both national carriers be favoured – ie Tiger and Firefly – but both AirAsia and Jetstar Asia are certainly not out of the ring.
Alan Joyce, CEO of Jetstar, who accepted the award for Low Cost Airline of the Year, said he hoped Jetstar Asia would be one of the favoured airlines to fly Singapore-Kuala Lumpur.
Fernandes meanwhile reiterated, at the end of our interview, “I’ve always said that if AirAsia flies to Singapore, I will buy Singapore Airlines.”
Pointing his finger up in the air, he repeated, “I will buy Singapore Airlines.”
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