AirAsia Tony Fernandes nude photos go viral | Wilnesh News

AirAsia founder and CEO Tony Fernandes says he has no regrets when a LinkedIn post about him getting a massage during a conference went viral, and that such transparency is worth the potential controversy.

The Malaysian businessman is known for his unfiltered approach to social media posts. He told CNBC last month that his posts were not reviewed by his PR team and he wanted to keep it that way.

“I am transparent, and social media has allowed me to be very transparent. One drawback of it is that people will distort and misunderstand the image of Tony Fernandez,” he said.

A recent widely shared post showed Fernandez jokingly scolding a passenger who brought food on board a plane in violation of the budget airline’s policy. He said he was forced to fly on rival Singapore Airlines because AirAsia flights were full, also raising some suspicions.

But by far the strongest reaction to Fernandez’s social media posts came in October, when the businessman shared a shirtless photo of himself in the office.

“I love Indonesia and Asia’s aviation culture because I get massages and have management meetings,” the post read, prompting a flood of comments and media coverage.

“My famous topless sports massage was just to show our culture, and honestly, we have such a flexible culture,” Fernandez told CNBC. “Of course, I had permission from everyone in the room to say, are you OK?”

“At first I asked if we could postpone the meeting so I could get a massage because I was in pain from flying so much. But the team said, we’re fine, you know, there’s nothing to hide. We’d rather not delay.” So I actually posted to say, what an amazing culture we have. “

However, he said the message was distorted and sparked a backlash. Still, he insists: “Do I regret it? No. It got me a lot of attention.”

While some online comments made fun of the article, others raised more serious objections, calling it inappropriate and observing that employees might feel uncomfortable challenging their bosses.

“What’s right is what the people around you think are right, right? I could have had a meeting on the beach with Richard Branson and my management and everyone would be like, how cool is this?” Fernand Si said.

“You couldn’t have a more diverse airline like ours, where most of our senior management are women… We have a flat, fun, transparent, direct culture,” he added.

AirAsia’s oft-told origin story is that Fernandes and partners bought the airline from the Malaysian government in 2001 for less than $1, with just two planes and millions of Malaysian ringgit. special debt.

The airline has since expanded its fleet to more than 200 aircraft, focusing on low-cost flights across the 10-nation ASEAN grouping of nations and connections to the wider region. Currently operated by two companies, Capital A owns AirAsia and AirAsia X.

Fernandez told CNBC that the fight against the pandemic requires “survival” plans that include setting up logistics, engineering and digital departments.However, he now sees a positive long-term impact of the turmoil on Asia’s aviation and aviation industries, noting that both airlines are reporting record profits.

“I think we’re in the best time of the aviation industry (now),” he said.

“If you think about the history of the airline industry, the U.S. has gone through a lot of ups and downs and a lot of consolidation…Europe has gone through the same thing, with a lot of state-owned airlines that have gone crazy and sold off a lot of valuations, pricing or state subsidies,” Fernandez said. added.

“ASEAN is in such a situation, with many state-owned airlines being subsidized, overcharging and irresponsible. The COVID-19 epidemic has taught everyone a lesson. So this is a positive factor for me because we are now Have a rational market.”

He said fares have increased by 30% and are not expected to fall anytime soon, and airline capacity is unlikely to change over the next five to six years. Part of the problem is that manufacturers are struggling to keep up with a backlog of aircraft orders.

“We have the advantage of 400 aircraft orders, but many airlines don’t have that advantage… If you buy an aircraft now, you won’t be able to buy it until 2031,” he said.

Fernandes says AirAsia is ‘lucky’ as an airline airbus-The only client able to reverse the ongoing turmoil boeing company its 737 Max aircraft, but he added that he believed the U.S. planemaker would “become even stronger.”