Word: airlinese
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It's only moments before takeoff when Tony Fernandes, chief executive officer of high-flying budget airline AirAsia, rushes onto a plane destined for the Malaysian resort town of Kota Kinabalu. But there's no plum seat waiting for him. Even top managers at no-frills airlines don't get...
Fernandes wouldn't have it any other way. "I love it when I struggle to find a seat," he beams. With ticket prices as low as 50?, seats have often been hard to find. Fernandes expects to fly 4 million passengers this year, twice as many as in 2003. His...
The cheap fares are luring Asians away from rickety buses, inefficient trains and traffic-choked highways and convincing many to travel more often. Laykha Boonlerd, a 26-year-old bank employee in Kuala Lumpur, could never before afford to fly to Bangkok to see her family and instead made an...
There are many potential Boonlerds and Jaafars out there to fuel the rise of budget airlines. Fernandes estimates that only 6% of all Malaysians have ever set foot on a plane; in Indonesia, a mere 1% of its 238 million people has. Indeed, about half the travelers on Asia's...
The no-frills carriers have also been helped by the changing attitudes of Asian governments. Instead of defending national-flag carriers, officials are clued in to the possibility that budget airlines can invigorate underused airports and attract much-needed tourist dollars. Singapore is considering building an entire new terminal as...