Air Asia was a fraudulent enterprise since its birth. Favouritism and sleight of hand using populist themes and symbols to create an illusion of an Asian version of the Virgin brand succeeded for a while.
Considering there was a degree of sovereign backing of the discount airline project from the Malaysian government in several forms, an opportunistic Sir Richard Branson decided to buy into the hype becoming the airlines second largest shareholder. On closer examination of its books by non Malaysian auditors, the illiquid position of Air Asia and its numbers began to reveal a disaster in the making. Branson bailed out in a quiet manner being compeensated for his silence on the ugly truth he had learned about Air Asia.
In 2013/2014 Branson's Virgin pulled out of Air Asia by selling off most of Virgin's stake in AirAsia. That should have rung alarm bells at every major financial center including London, Sydney and of course KL itself. It did not. Instead the problem was covered as a foot note in financial news papers and publications worldwide owing to the threat of a financial dominoes effect if Air Asia llapsed.
The European aircraft manufacturer Airbus itself in deep trouble from its aggressive competing against Boeing for market share was bleeding from Covid, costing it hundreds of billions of Euros in bad debts fom airlines like Air Asia.
This was the result of selling to all and sundry who wanted an airline, at incredibly generous terms "on the smell of an oily rag". Boeing and Airbus had earlier been caught up in the disastrous Indian version of Air Asia, Kingfisher Airlines. Kingfisher Airlines a start up by flambouyant Indian beer moghul Vijay Malaya which collapsed owing several billions of dollars to Airbus and Boeing. Airbus had to contain the damage as did banks and insurers. The Indian government stepped in.
Airbus and their banks had to keep rolling over debts which airlines like Air Asia could not meet on time. Airbus Industrie and their government backers, Britain Germany and France kept up the charade and continued to extend more credit and credit lines to the likes of Air Asia.
The scam got out of control during the Covid pandemic. In or around 2022 Air Asia was called upon to submit a report over its finances, to explain its unauthorised and unlawful public capital raising through the sale of phantom tickets without a prospectus. The airline retained cancelled ticket monies even though many of these cancellations were for phantom flights which did not exist. The Malaysian financial authorities turned a blind eye to Fernandez's scams.
Air Asia in this regard was engaging in conduct which was both an unlawful and criminal. The capital raising without the sanction of the Bursa in KL and the courts and shareholders was a fatal breach of the Corporations Act which should have seen unrepentant directors and managers carted off to jail. Instead Tony Fernandez the Airlines CEO went on a PR blitz making things worse. His ability to communicate convincingly even to Filipina and Indonesian maids failed to go down well. The reason? Fernandez's explanations made matetrs worse. They were full of lies.
Air Asia failed to comply with laws which should have resulted in a suspension of its shares listed on the KL Bursa and elsewhere where they were listed. The Bursa under Malaysian government pressure did not itself comply with the law and allowed Air Asia to continue trading without complying and in breach of the law.
Whats even worse is that there is hardly any confirmation of who the Air Asia insurers and underwriters are. It is widely suspected that some of its inurers who claim to be underwriting the Airline are of questionable repute and may not even be solvent.
Fernandez is believed to be a beneficiary of one of these underwriters based on an offshore island.
Its not government thats corrupt in Malaysia. It is the entire populace that is so.
God help anyone that risks flying on Air Asia today.
Air Asia was a fraudulent enterprise since its birth. Favouritism and sleight of hand using populist themes and symbols to create an illusion of an Asian version of the Virgin brand succeeded for a while.
Considering there was a degree of sovereign backing of the discount airline project from the Malaysian government in several forms, an opportunistic Sir Richard Branson decided to buy into the hype becoming the airlines second largest shareholder. On closer examination of its books by non Malaysian auditors, the illiquid position of Air Asia and its numbers began to reveal a disaster in the making. Branson bailed out in a quiet manner being compeensated for his silence on the ugly truth he had learned about Air Asia.
In 2013/2014 Branson's Virgin pulled out of Air Asia by selling off most of Virgin's stake in AirAsia. That should have rung alarm bells at every major financial center including London, Sydney and of course KL itself. It did not. Instead the problem was covered as a foot note in financial news papers and publications worldwide owing to the threat of a financial dominoes effect if Air Asia llapsed.
The European aircraft manufacturer Airbus itself in deep trouble from its aggressive competing against Boeing for market share was bleeding from Covid, costing it hundreds of billions of Euros in bad debts fom airlines like Air Asia.
This was the result of selling to all and sundry who wanted an airline, at incredibly generous terms "on the smell of an oily rag". Boeing and Airbus had earlier been caught up in the disastrous Indian version of Air Asia, Kingfisher Airlines. Kingfisher Airlines a start up by flambouyant Indian beer moghul Vijay Malaya which collapsed owing several billions of dollars to Airbus and Boeing. Airbus had to contain the damage as did banks and insurers. The Indian government stepped in.
Airbus and their banks had to keep rolling over debts which airlines like Air Asia could not meet on time. Airbus Industrie and their government backers, Britain Germany and France kept up the charade and continued to extend more credit and credit lines to the likes of Air Asia.
The scam got out of control during the Covid pandemic. In or around 2022 Air Asia was called upon to submit a report over its finances, to explain its unauthorised and unlawful public capital raising through the sale of phantom tickets without a prospectus. The airline retained cancelled ticket monies even though many of these cancellations were for phantom flights which did not exist. The Malaysian financial authorities turned a blind eye to Fernandez's scams.
Air Asia in this regard was engaging in conduct which was both an unlawful and criminal. The capital raising without the sanction of the Bursa in KL and the courts and shareholders was a fatal breach of the Corporations Act which should have seen unrepentant directors and managers carted off to jail. Instead Tony Fernandez the Airlines CEO went on a PR blitz making things worse. His ability to communicate convincingly even to Filipina and Indonesian maids failed to go down well. The reason? Fernandez's explanations made matetrs worse. They were full of lies.
Air Asia failed to comply with laws which should have resulted in a suspension of its shares listed on the KL Bursa and elsewhere where they were listed. The Bursa under Malaysian government pressure did not itself comply with the law and allowed Air Asia to continue trading without complying and in breach of the law.
Whats even worse is that there is hardly any confirmation of who the Air Asia insurers and underwriters are. It is widely suspected that some of its inurers who claim to be underwriting the Airline are of questionable repute and may not even be solvent.
Fernandez is believed to be a beneficiary of one of these underwriters based on an offshore island.
Its not government thats corrupt in Malaysia. It is the entire populace that is so.
God help anyone that risks flying on Air Asia today.