AirAsia HQ will stay in Malaysia, says Fernandes

AirAsia boss Tony Fernandes today denied claims that his budget airline will shift its operations from Malaysia to neighbouring Indonesia, calling media organisations that ran the story “silly”.

In a series of tweets responding to the story, Fernandes indicated that there is no plan to move AirAsia's headquarters to Indonesia.

"AirAsia headquarters always in Malaysia. We were born in Malaysia. My home is Malaysia.

"Our stock listing is in Malaysia. Hope this clears this up. Silly how some press turn things around,” he said in a tweet posted at around 5pm.

Fernandes did not deny AirAsia's plans to expand its administrative office in Indonesia, explaining in another tweet that the Jakarta office is part of their plan to go regional.

“Asean is important to many Malaysian companies. Our government is telling us to go regional and that's what we are doing. Asean is situated in Jakarta. That's why our Asean office there,” he said.

“Indonesia is important country to AirAsia. I would rather stay in an apartment when I'm there than hotel.

"But this is not about Malaysia, Indonesia and Thai. Its about Asean. Without Asean we could never have opened AirAsia Japan. That gives us size,” he said in a third tweet.

Asean mandate the difference

In an immediate AirAsia media release sent barely one hour after Fernandes put up his tweets, the company repeated that it was “reported incorrectly” that their corporate headquarters was moving to Jakarta.

The statement clarified that the Jakarta office will be called AirAsia Asean, “to serve as a representative office for AirAsia in our efforts to broaden our branding as a 'Truly Asean' airline”, as well as to reach out to various regional groups on matters of aviation policies within the region.

“As AirAsia grows and expands within the region, and in keeping with our own philosophy of the Asean region as our base, we have found that it is imperative we engage with all parties interested in aviation and tourism throughout the region.

“Hence, AirAsia Asean's mandate is to engage closely with the governments, non-government organisations and the media in Asean to put forward our ideas regarding the growth of the tourism industry and aviation policies in this region we all call home.”

It was also pointed out that Fernandes said last Thursday that the choice of Jakarta was influenced by the fact that the Asean secretariat is based there, and would facilitate the company to “present its ideas regarding regional aviation and tourism growth much more effectively”.

AirAsia stressed that it is “incorrect to say, or imply” that the company is moving its corporate headquarters from Malaysia to Indonesia” stating that its office will continue to be located at its current premises at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) in Sepang, Selangor.

“There are absolutely no plans, nor the inclination, to move the headquarters of this Malaysian-incorporated company out of the country. And our Malaysian-registered fleet or aircraft will continue to operated from the LCCT.

“In fact, we are of the firm conviction that AirAsia Asean's outreach efforts from Jakarta can eventually benefit not just the aviation and tourism industries in the region, but also help AirAsia boost the economies of all Asean countries – with Malaysia, in particular, gaining substantially given the increasing connectivity established by AirAsia from our LCCT hub in Sepang.” - Malaysiakini