Tan Sri Anthony Francis Fernandes CBE (born 30 April 1964; also known as
Tony Fernandes) is a
Malaysian entrepreneur and the founder of Tune Air Sdn. Bhd., who introduced the first
budget no-frills airline,
AirAsia, to Malaysians with the tagline "Now everyone can fly". He has since founded the
Tune Group of companies.
He rose to prominence by turning
AirAsia, a failing government-linked commercial airline, into a highly successful budget airline
public-listed company. Fernandes was also instrumental in lobbying the then-
Malaysian Prime Minister,
Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in mid-2003, to propose the idea of
open skies agreements with neighbouring
Thailand,
Indonesia, and
Singapore. As a result, these nations have granted landing rights to AirAsia and other
discount carrier.
Early years
Born in
Kuala Lumpur to an Indian
Goan father and
Malacca Portuguese mother, Tan Sri Tony Fernandes is the son of the late Stephen Edward Fernandes, and Ena Dorothy Fernandez. When he was young, he used to follow his mother, a businesswoman, to
Tupperware dealer parties and conventions.
He was educated at
Epsom College 1977-83 and then graduated from the
London School of Economics in 1987. He worked very briefly with
Virgin Atlantic as an
auditor, subsequently becoming the
financial controller for
Richard Branson's
Virgin Records in
London from 1987 to 1989.
Tony was admitted as Associate Member of the...
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