Tony Fernandes Receives 2009 Frost & Sullivan Excellence in Leadership Award

AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes received the 2009 Frost & Sullivan Excellence in Leadership Award at a recent congress attended by prominent business executives and industry thought leaders from across Asia.

The award was presented to Mr Fernandes for his exemplary leadership skills in driving excellence within his organization. The award was given at the recent GIL 2009: Asia Pacific, A Growth, Innovation and Leadership Congress in Kuala Lumpur, which was attended by 250 business leaders. Frost & Sullivan holds the event annually.

Frost & Sullivan is a US-based consulting firm that serves global top 1000 companies and that focuses on the research and analyses of new market opportunities for business growth.

In choosing Tony for the award, Frost & Sullivan said it considered factors including social impact, profit margins, stock price, overall market growth and penetration, growth in market share, and over all industry impact.

Of his award, Mr Fernandes said, “This testifies to our belief at AirAsia that when we work together, we can achieve anything. This award is due to the 6,500 in the staff who are the backbone of AirAsia. They inspire me, and collectively we work towards our dream of growing AirAsia so that even more people can fly and even more sky bridges are established. It gives me great pleasure to know that efforts to change the face of aviation and liberalize air travel are also appreciated and deemed important by reputable business organizations.”

When the airline started, it had a fleet of two aircraft and a staff of 250. The airline quickly expanded under Mr Fernandes’ leadership and has grown to include approximately 80 new Airbus A320 aircraft, 113 routes to almost 60 destinations across Asia, and a staff of 6,500.

Mr Fernandes also leads the rapidly growing Tune Group, which currently includes Tune Hotels, a no-frills hotel chain that offers “5-star beds at 1-star prices;” Tune Sports, which runs the ASEAN Basketball League; Tune Money, which caters to the financial needs of the underserved market at what it calls affordable prices; and Tune Talk, a mobile phone service that offers flat rate calls. Tune Group also has an investment in 1Malaysia F1 Team to support the 1Malaysia initiative and to provide an avenue for Malaysia to advance in the global sports scene.

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