Tony Fernandes Quotes

In Europe, they travel a lot lighter. I always joke that my Indonesian passengers bring their house and their neighbor's house.

- Tony Fernandes

Aviation is for the common man. My goal is to enable everyone to fly. It shouldn't be only for the rich.

- Tony Fernandes

I've lived in Jakarta and have seen a lot more by living here, and I understand that there's so much more to Indonesia than just Bali and Jakarta.

- Tony Fernandes

I'm not cynical or bitter in any way. Life's too short; you get ripped off, but if you hold a grudge, it's going to affect you. You take it on the chin, you learn, you try not to make the same mistakes.

- Tony Fernandes

When I started my airline business, I didn't know everything, right? If I start up a newspaper tomorrow, I might get ripped off by journalists. You'd be naive to think you know everything from day one.

- Tony Fernandes

I came from the music business, which reputedly has the biggest egos, but I really think the airline world caps it.

- Tony Fernandes

My whole life's been stability. People who have worked with me have for a long time. Air Asia is the same people who started it.

- Tony Fernandes

I think airlines have been very much parrots. They'll just follow what everyone else is doing. Why change a model that they're happy in? And it takes someone like myself or Richard Branson who comes from outside the industry to say, 'Hey, let's try something new.'

- Tony Fernandes

Passion is just something that comes naturally to me.

- Tony Fernandes

I don't care about failing because I do not want to sit down in my older years and say, 'How come I didn't try?'

- Tony Fernandes

Don't kid yourself that anyone in the Premier League is going to do you any favours.

- Tony Fernandes

I look for people who have drive, who have ambition, who are humble. I've hired many people at very strange places.

- Tony Fernandes

I don't know if every player in the Premier League feels hurt when they lose a game. The right sort is very important. I was naive in thinking that everyone was like me.

- Tony Fernandes

When the music business failed to embrace the Internet, I thought it was game, set and match for the industry, and I quit.

- Tony Fernandes

Winning is an amazing feeling. You don't get that in business; you don't get that in many things.

- Tony Fernandes

Airlines are one of the last things to be liberalized.

- Tony Fernandes

The music and airlines businesses are tough, but I've been successful in them.

- Tony Fernandes

Good leadership is to know when to go, and you only succeed as a good leader if you've transported someone else in and the company gets stronger. Then you've succeeded as leader.

- Tony Fernandes

In AirAsia, we consider ourselves basically a dream factory. We deliberately decided that we wanted a company where people can pursue their passion, and we wanted to make use of all the talent that we have in-house.

- Tony Fernandes

My whole life has always been about looking for that person that money can't buy in that they've got a bee in their bonnet.

- Tony Fernandes