Tony Fernandes :It was done to protect company [VIDEO]

Tan Sri Tony Fernandes has apologized for buckling under pressure in ferrying former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on a Barisan Nasional-themed flight and featuring it on a video.

The AirAsia Group CEO said he will regret the decision forever as it was a spur-of-the-moment decision to protect the company, which has given so much to Malaysia.

“Foolishly, I thought by doing the video which I felt was fairly neutral and factual and the plane from Kota Kinabalu would appease the government.

“I also thought it will protect the jobs of all staff, more importantly the very essence of allowing 18mil to fly every year at low fares,” he said in the almost eight-minute-long video, which he posted on his official Facebook page on Sunday.

“When Tan Sri Rafidah (Aziz) started getting involved with Pakatan Harapan campaigns through her social media and ceramah, I was asked to remove her from being chairman of Air Asia X, I refused to do so because I thought it is not the right thing to do.

“I came under intense pressure day by day as Tan Sri Rafidah became more involved in the campaign. As Tan Sri Rafidah’s impact and popularity grew, the pressure grew exponentially.

“It was getting harder and harder to resist the pressure from the Prime Minister’s Office. I stood firm and never mentioned to Tan Sri Rafidah to step down from the board of Air Asia x cause I believe it was just not the right to do,” he said.

The second point that led to his grave error of judgement was when the rakyat asked the company for more flights at a low fare to go back to vote during the general election.

“I knew it wouldn’t be popular with the government but I felt as an airline we have to serve the people and this time, people really wanted to go back. In previous elections, Air Asia was not a large airline so we could not make a difference.

“So we put on 120 extra flights which would have carried 26,000 people on top of our normal flights. On top of that, we reduced our ticket prices to make it more affordable, RM99 for flights in Peninsular Malaysia and RM129 for flights across the sea to East Malaysia,” he said,

He added the rakyat was overjoyed but unfortunately it put him under even more pressure when it is realised by the government the airline was ferrying so many voters,

“Within 24 hours we were summoned by the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) and told to cancel all those flights. That put us again under tremendous pressure.

“We had the Tan Sri Rafidah (issue) where we didn’t buckle and we put in these extra flights to carry the rakyat home at low fares,” he said.

Fernandes said there were no real excuses for the pro-Barisan stunt but these were the events leading to the decision to do so.

“AirAsia is in a very regulated industry where almost everything requires the approval of the Government.

“From flights to airport taxes to routes and so it is never very easy running an airline and one must always support the government of the day,” he said.

Fernandes claimed he had been under pressure many times before but he had withstood it.

“My views are actually the same as your views as you can see based on my social media.

“I believe so much in this new Malaysia, a Malaysia that will be just and fair, a Malaysia that has really reflected what we built in AirAsia,” he said.

Fernandes said he looked forward to a fantastic new Malaysia, that will give everyone a chance.

“I will do my level best and put 150% in to make up for this error of judgment to ensure Air Asia will continue to allow dreams to come true and to allow us to reach the true potential of what Malaysian wants to be.

“We will do our best to play that small little part. It is still the happiest day of my life  that we have a new Malaysia that will give everyone an amazing chance to reach for the sky,” he said.

Source from The Star