Word: planes
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...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 any frills. Fernandes treks through the crowded plane searching for an empty chair, ending up in one of the last rows. When flight attendants appear with a cart of sodas and instant noodles for sale, he plunks down 80? for a can of Milo chocolate drink. Fernandes then spends much...
...Fernandes, a fast-talking, 40-year-old Malaysian, has become the poster child for the new movement. A 12-year veteran at Warner Music in Asia, Fernandes sold his pricey AOL Time Warner stock options and in 2001 bought into a sleepy two-plane airline in Kuala Lumpur. He now has 18 planes and is looking to buy 80 more over the next eight years. From starting with only 12 flights a day, AirAsia currently has a hundred. On July 1 alone, AirAsia launched its first flight from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta, added a second to Bangkok and announced...
...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 budget airlines are first-time flyers. As incomes rise steadily around Asia, industry analysts expect air travel to grow more than 5% a year across the region over the next two decades, with growth of more than 8% in China...
...airlines can afford to routinely sell some tickets at prices that are competitive with those of budget carriers. Overall, Fernandes says his airline charges about half as much as major competitors, but only about 30% of his seats are sold at the lowest advertised price. Fares increase as the plane fills up, especially on very popular routes, so passengers need to buy early to get the dirt-cheap fares. Sam Chan, a Singaporean trader, found this out on a June business trip to Malaysia. He purchased a one-way ticket from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu the same...
RESIGNED. THEODORE OLSON, 63, attorney who successfully represented presidential candidate George W. Bush before the Supreme Court during the 2000 Florida recount case; as U.S. Solicitor General. Olson, whose wife died aboard a hijacked plane on Sept. 11, also vociferously defended the Bush Administration's aggressive legal measures against terrorism...