AirAsia boss Tony Fernandes fails to get a seat on his airline, flies with rival brand

What’s it like to avail the services of a rival brand when you are an airline CEO?

It’s just another day of boarding the flight for AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes.

Taking to Instagram, the entrepreneur revealed that he was unable to book a seat in AirAsia, and so opted to fly with Singapore Airlines flight. Sharing a picture of his seat inside the plane, Fernandes wrote, “No seat on @flyairasia for three flights so had to take @singaporeair. Hehehe.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tony Fernandes (@tonyfernandes)

The seat seems to be located inside the economy class. Fernandes’s post tickled the funny ribs of many of his followers. One Instagram user wrote, “It is so refreshing to see the CEO of a private airline respect his customer bookings and not find a 'corporate' method to shuffle some passengers around.”

However, some poked fun that he must have got to experience better quality seats on Singapore Airlines. “Lol you had to take @singaporeair because of the seat quality given on your own company @flyairasia,” quipped another user.

Earlier in October, the entrepreneur got into trouble after he posed shirtless for a virtual meeting. In a LinkedIn post, he had praised the work culture at AirAsia which allowed him to get a massage while on a remote meeting. He deleted the post, after meeting severe backlash for lack of professionalism.

Fernandes took charge of AirAsia in 2001, after acquiring the airline from the Malaysian government. Under his deft leadership, it became Asia’s fourth-largest airline service, until the Covid-19 pandemic dimmed its annual profits.

AirAsia shot to fame for being affordable. It has been named world’s best low-cost carrier by airlines review website Skytrax.