Flying High, My Story Read online

  Their faces brought home to me the scale of what was happening. I realized I’d let them all down – what could I possibly say to make the pain go away? There were 155 passengers on QZ8501 and a lot of their families were packed into the room, desperate for any news. The Indonesian authorities were handling the situation, but all in the Indonesian language, so I couldn’t help there. I was just standing by until one of the family members shouted, ‘The face of the brand is here. I want to hear from him.’

  So then I spoke and people asked me questions. I either didn’t know the answers or just had partial answers, but I promised to find out what I could and keep them up to date with whatever new information emerged. After that, I did a live press conference with the Indonesian minister of transportation which went out globally.

  Then I went back into the room and met every single family. The questions were full of desperation and hope:

  ‘Could they be in a life raft?’

  ‘Could they have made it on to an island?’

  ‘Could they have somehow survived the crash anyhow?’

  In my heart, I knew they’d gone but I did try to maintain the hope that they might have survived until we had definite proof either way. Reports started to come in of some of the aircraft parts being found and we began briefly to hope there had been a soft landing and that maybe some people had survived, but then I saw the transport minister alone and he told me that the plane had come down very fast. They could see from the radar that it had spun and descended too quickly. At that point, I gave up hope that anyone had survived.

  And then your mind flits briefly to blame – no one wants it to be their fault. We knew the plane was flying in bad weather and it was a strong possibility that might be a main factor in the crash. But there were lots of factors – and the airline had to be counted as one of them.

  The passengers’ families were gentle and kind. One older lady who had lost a lot of her family members started hitting me, but she was an exception. Her family calmed her down and apologized but I was never going to complain about that kind of reaction – it was entirely understandable. I gave my phone number to everyone and stayed in touch. I’m still in touch with some of the families, as it happens. At the time I remember thinking that the only thing I could offer was good communication. I couldn’t rescue their loved ones or bring them back to life, all I could do was be there and answer whatever questions they had. The families seemed to appreciate that. So I just talked and talked and talked to them – sitting for hours. Din was doing the same with the families in Singapore. I said at a press conference, ‘It is probably an airline CEO’s worst nightmare. After thirteen years of flying millions of people, it is the worst feeling one could have, but we stay strong for the families out there to make sure we can look after them even after the incident. We want to keep in contact with [victims’ families] so we can provide the necessary support they may require.’

  We appointed a care provider from AirAsia to each of the families.

  The staff were next on my list. I visited the AirAsia Indonesia offices to reassure and comfort them – the company is like a family and the tragedy was not just about the passengers, it was about the loss of friends and colleagues in a close-knit group. This applied to all AirAsia, not just the Indonesian company.

  After the first day in Surabaya I went back to my hotel room, drained and in a daze. The room seemed so empty. I didn’t really sleep but somehow I found the strength to go back the next day and the next and the one after that. All the while I was getting messages from the families. Some touched me very deeply. Several weeks after I’d left Surabaya I was talking to Jenny Wakana, our communications head, and asked her to scroll through some of the messages. She hadn’t known I was talking direct to the families. She dug out one exchange which she wanted to share with the company. The family member was happy for her to do it and I felt it would help the staff understand that the families weren’t blaming AirAsia completely for the loss of their loved ones.

  She sent out the following email on my behalf:

  Allstars,

  Over the past few weeks, I have been in touch with many of the family members and loved ones of our guests and crew onboard QZ8501, trying to offer as much support as I can.

  Meeting and speaking with the family members and getting to know their stories has been heartbreaking and humbling and yet it’s given me the resolve to want to make this truly the world’s best, safest airline, together with all of you.

  Here’s a conversation I had with one of the family members that I want to share:

  12 Jan 19:25 – QZ8501: Tony stay strong, i’m one of family members who got accident with airasia. I lost 2 my lovely sisters in these accident, you can buy plane again even if you should work hard from the low level again my be, but i dont have anything to make my sisters live again except my Jesus do some miracle. But i appreciated your responsibility as CEO Airasia, i hope your crew and managemet learn from you. Also I hope these accident is not human error because if its true it would be hurt for us who lost our belove family. But i support you too as personal, i know that you are great CEO through these very hard time. keep humble, you try to do the best to make our family member pass these sorrow, really appreciated. Tony keep moving and pls make everyone SAFE to fly GBU

  12 Jan 19:28 – QZ8501: Because in this time too i really scary to get flight, even my job push me to keep flying every month. Through this accident maybe not only i lost my sisters but also my job. Please promise to me make everyone SAFE to fly

  12 Jan 20:30 – Tony Airasia Fernandes: Thank you for you lovely note. What is your name. I’m so sorry about your loss. My heart bleeds. I’m determined to make Airasia the safest airline. I will share your note with all my staff. To ensure we get better. Don’t be scared to fly. We can help you overcome your fear. Don’t be afraid. I will fly with you. I hope your sisters are in a better place. I’m so so sorry. Pls give me your contact.

  12 Jan 21:16 – QZ8501: It’s ok Tony, i try to let my sisters Go. Just cascade to your crew keep make everyone fly i love these idea too but please make it safe too, i know thats would bring joy to everyone who have dream to see another country with low cost budget like me, my sister and whole family. Keep your dream and make it true.

  12 Jan 23:54 – Tony Airasia Fernandes: Felly I’m really sorry

  13 Jan 00:01 – QZ8501: Maybe it’s not your false but may it will be lesson for learned for every airasia member, i wish all of you will be better Tony, i know it hurt u too and all of your crew

  13 Jan 00:02 – Tony Airasia Fernandes: For 13 years we never had an accident

  13 Jan 00:02 – Tony Airasia Fernandes: Never. We carried 250 million people

  13 Jan 00:02 – Tony Airasia Fernandes: I never believed it would happen

  13 Jan 00:13 – QZ8501: Yes tony thats why me, my whole family love to use airasia. The first maskapai [airline] which brought me to overseas. Your maskapai make my dream come true

  13 Jan 00:13 – QZ8501: I trust your safety profile

  13 Jan 00:13 – QZ8501: But now even with others maskapai im really scary to fly

  13 Jan 00:14 – QZ8501: Its ok

  13 Jan 00:14 – QZ8501: Lets learn and overcome these situation

  13 Jan 00:14 – QZ8501: Even my dady

  13 Jan 00:14 – QZ8501: He forgive the accident

  13 Jan 00:14 – QZ8501: He said you are great CEO

  13 Jan 00:15 – QZ8501: Keep moving Tony

  13 Jan 00:15 – QZ8501: I just want to said these because i know u try ur best

  13 Jan 00:15 – QZ8501: I love your dream in airasia

  13 Jan 00:16 – QZ8501: And i know this time you have a lot of complain from many passanger family who very sad with these accident

  13 Jan 00:16 – QZ8501: But i hope you never stop with these make everyone can fly

  13 Jan 00:17 – QZ8501: Because my dream to see another country comes true because of that

  13 Jan 00:17 – QZ8501: Too


  I know it’s tough. But we must not give up. We owe it to all of those we lost to live up to our promise of ‘now everyone can fly’ and help dreams come true.

  Let us work harder, be diligent and smile brighter for our guests. Safety is a marathon – we need to continuously improve and learn every day.

  Together, we will be the world’s best again, as we always have been.

  Love,

  Tony

  A Singapore submarine found the aircraft on 7 January, and pictures emerged of flight 8501 sitting on the bottom of the sea. The first emotion was, honestly, a sense of relief: relief that the desperate search was over; relief that there was some closure for the victims’ families and relief that we could start to help them through the next stage of grieving. And then there was deep sadness when the pictures of the tail fin with our livery being lifted out of the sea were broadcast around the world. I also felt deeply for the victims of the MAS flight 370 who still don’t have the physical evidence of what happened to their loved ones.

  The first body was discovered – it was one of the cabin crew, Hayati Lutfiah Hamid – and I went to her funeral. I collected the body from Surabaya and took it to her home town for the funeral. It turned into a media scrum and some people said that it was insensitive of me to attend, but the family were thrilled with the attention – they said their daughter always wanted to be a star. And their religion helped support them through the loss.

  Din and I went to passenger funerals too. Din is religious and I think his belief gave him strength, which helped me too. We’re both emotional people and could not hide our feelings even if we had wanted to. Instead, we made it clear how much we were hurting and, in a curious way, that helped us get through this nightmare not as badly scarred as we might have been.

  When the dust settled, there was still an airline to run. There was still a responsibility to the staff and passengers to provide a safe and secure means of transport. AirAsia came out of the tragedy in reasonable standing with the public, I think. We handled the crisis in the best possible way we could; and the only way we knew was by being open, honest and natural. There weren’t any corporate shields or faceless PR people and we didn’t hide behind the government investigators. We fronted up and I think the public responded to that.

  I realized during and after the crisis that you really see the strength of a person when things are bad. Nowadays we talk about ‘One AirAsia’ and back then we really had it – the whole company pulling together and showing their strength. We had guys in the care provider teams who were with the victims’ families for sixty or seventy days without seeing their own families. They cared deeply and genuinely, and to me, as CEO and founder of this company, nothing could make me prouder than the way we as a group responded to this unspeakable tragedy. Everyone from everywhere in AirAsia came down to Indonesia to help however they could. It was one of the proudest moments in AirAsia that everyone in the company responded in such an admirable way – by being genuine and caring and doing the right thing. It didn’t matter whether they were Muslim, Catholic, Malaysian, Indonesian, Thai or Japanese – everyone put effort in. The public saw and appreciated that.

  We suspended marketing activities for a month in all the areas except Indonesia, where we stayed offline for about two months.

  No airline can ever say it’s 100 per cent safe. Safety is a never-ending race – you’ve got to keep getting better and staying ahead of potential problems. There are always things you can explore to see if there are better methods or standards; and every day you have to be vigilant, thorough and professional to ensure safety is always top of the list.

  I was perhaps a little remote from AirAsia before the accident because I’d been involved with Formula One, QPR and Tune, the umbrella company of Din and my other interests. As a result of the crash and its consequences, I got stuck back in and for the past two years I’ve been aggressively hands-on in the way that I run the business. There was talk in the aftermath of the crash of closing AirAsia Indonesia, but I disagreed – and now it’s doing well.

  The number of tears we shed though was incredible; funerals, meetings, discovery of plane parts – whatever the occasion, we felt it all the way through us.

  Someone said to me recently that nothing has come easy to AirAsia and it’s true. Everything that we’ve achieved, we’ve achieved through blood, sweat and tears. There have been no straight paths. We got through the daunting task of setting up the airline and started flying: our fleet was halved by a bird strike. We got through the bird strike, SARS and bird flu, and then the Bali bomb of 2005 hit the region and threw all plans out of the window. We grew because of our aggressive strategy during these crises. Even when the world financial crisis hit, we worked doubly hard and came out ahead, only for the oil price to tank just after we’d taken a hedged position, which wiped out half of our cash; again we dragged ourselves through, but then the greatest tragedy of all befell us – QZ8501. We dedicated ourselves to the passengers’ families, to reviewing and enhancing our safety record (which had been spotless) and then we were faced with a report in which perhaps, I felt, we shouldered more of the blame than we should have done. We learned and got better.

  In the aftermath of the tragedy, I felt we needed to ensure that the highest possible standards were being maintained in every territory in which we operated. Each territory had a different mandatory standard of operational fitness. So we created a group structure for the airline, and we made sure that all our standards conformed to the highest requirements of the whole region.

  What happened in one country affected the whole company and, as far as the outside world was concerned, the whole brand. And so out of this came the idea of ‘One AirAsia’, which is currently being implemented. We’ll no longer have AirAsia Thailand, AirAsia Philippines and so on, it will simply be AirAsia whenever and wherever we fly. This is really important for the development of the airline as a whole. As the company gets bigger – we’ve grown from 250 staff to nearly 20,000 (with more to come) – it’s imperative to hold on to the family identity and culture, so getting rid of regional tags is a significant help in bringing people together.

  My philosophy throughout my business career is that you should always be transparent and honest. If you do something wrong, you hold your hand up, apologize, do what it takes to make it right and move on. This applies to tragedies as much as it does to smaller things. Recently I was alerted to an ad Tune Protect placed on the backs of some of AirAsia’s aeroplane seats. The ad denigrated nurses, calling them ‘lousy’. It was just a stupid ad that should never have got on to an AirAsia plane. When someone showed it to me, I immediately told the CEO to remove it, apologized unreservedly to the professional nurses’ body and made a public statement acknowledging the mistake. Again, it was a case of holding your hand up, saying sorry and moving on.

  From great tragedy to smaller annoyances, the only way to gain trust and enhance your reputation and to get better is to be open and truthful. Apparently, our handling of the loss of flight QZ8501 and the 167 passengers and crew has been the subject of some academic papers on ‘Crisis Management’. In such tragic circumstances, you can only hope that some good will come of it; if AirAsia’s reaction to the terrible, terrible loss of life is helpful to others then maybe that’s a contribution. The communication routes and accessibility of our staff seem to be the key factors here. We deliberately made sure that we didn’t hide behind a corporate or legal shield. Given there was little anyone could actually do to save the situation, the fact that we were as visible and as helpful as we could be gave at least a little comfort to the victims’ grieving families.

  8. The AirAsia Journey

  Soundtrack: ‘Come Fly with Me’ by Frank Sinatra

  On 7 November 2016, AirAsia opened the doors of its new corporate headquarters, RedQ, positioned by Kuala Lumpur International Airport’s second terminal. It had been a bumpy long-haul flight from early 2001, when we crammed five people into my old Warner office, to this gleamin
g 18,000-square-metre six-storey building, home to 2,000 of AirAsia’s 20,000 staff.

  The space and design reflect my business philosophy. Everything is open plan or, if there are rooms with walls, they are glass. Nobody has an office. Diagonal walkways cross a wide and high atrium which makes for an airy, bright environment; there are free seating areas and a cafeteria that offers seven varieties of fresh food, all cooked in the building. The emphasis is on healthy eating. Facilities on site include a shop, a gym, automated teller machines and a coffee station, and we have a doctor and medical team; there are plans for a crèche and other amenities. We provide as much as possible at work so that our Allstars can get on and do their work with no fuss or distraction. RedQ looks out on to the apron where we can see our planes taxiing, taking off and landing, so we are reminded constantly what we’re there to do. When we designed the building, we took staff suggestions seriously so that we could most effectively create an environment in which we knew everyone would work to their best. One of my greatest pleasures is walking into RedQ in the morning and hearing the noise of people enjoying their work.

  The opening ceremony was an incredible moment for me. I feel RedQ represents the kind of organization we’ve matured into – one that has a prominent place in South East Asian enterprise. We are the brand that you see when your plane taxis into KLIA – just as easyJet was the brand I saw at Luton all those years ago.

  With some fresh deals in the pipeline as I write this, I ultimately hope to achieve the dream of establishing an airline that operates in every major country and region in Asia, from India to China and Japan to Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia. We are pushing hard to become the number-one airline in all territories. Our growth has been phenomenal despite all of the setbacks. We are around 20,000 employees; our revenue is rocketing; our fleet is going to touch 500 by 2028. In June 2017, I signed a deal with Airbus for an additional fourteen aircraft to be ready for 2018–19 because of the ticket demands we’re experiencing. With that signature we became Airbus’s number-one customer, outstripping Lufthansa and Emirates. AirAsia group will have purchased 688 aircraft from them since we started in 2001 at a value of over $90 billion.