AirAsia is often on time, says Tony Fernandes

In emphasising the importance of punctuality, AirAsia founder Tony Fernandes said the budget carrier is often on time.

"I have 15 minutes to speak about my life and like AirAsia, I will be on time," he told a forum on "My Voice, My Nation" in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, last night.

"Well, but (I am) not always on time," Fernandes said, and then went on to speak of his appointment with Dr Mahathir Mohamad during his first stint as prime minister 18 years ago, saying he (Fernandes) arrived three hours earlier than the scheduled appointment time.

He said he arrived in Putrajaya at 6am, through the appointment time was set at 9.30am so that he would not be late.

At that time, Fernandes said, said he went to meet Mahathir to propose his plan on initiating AirAsia as a budget airline.

Mahathir, who was also on the same stage with Tony last night, spoke of the punctuality of the civil service.

Mahathir said civil servants today are more punctual.

Fernandes said: "The man who actually gave me a chance to start AirAsia is sitting in front of me today.

"We went to see him in Putrajaya to pursue our dream of starting AirAsia."

On-time performance

The Defence Ministry had censured Malaysia Airlines (MAS) after a delay in a Kuala Lumpur-London flight torpedoed a meeting in London between Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu and Mahathir.

Mohamad, who is also known as Mat Sabu, took flight MH002 from Kuala Lumpur on June 15 and was scheduled to arrive in London at 5.55am on June 16.

However, due to the delay, he only arrived at 8.26am.

MAS explained that it also made arrangements for swift and seamless immigration and security clearance upon the flight's arrival at Heathrow Airport.

The national carrier has apologised for the incident.

According to the UK-based air travel intelligence company OAG Aviation, Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia have similar on-time performance (OTP) of 77.5 percent and 76.7 percent, respectively. This has garnered both airlines three-star ratings.

However, AirAsia also has several sister airlines with varying OTP, ranging from 83.8 percent for Thai AirAsia (four stars) to 63.1 percent for Philippines AirAsia (one star).

For comparison, the top-performing airline is Indonesia's Garuda Airlines, where 91.6 percent of its 16,408 flights over the same period are reportedly on time.

The figures are from OAG Aviation's latest monthly report, which spans the period from June 2018 to May 2019. It is based on the percentage of flights that depart or arrive within 15 minutes of the scheduled time. - Mkini