Super-premium airline ‘is an idea '

AirAsia Bhd co-founder and group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes has downplayed plans to set up a super-premium airline as “just an idea”.

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"What I can say is if an idea like this dare materialise, and I'm not saying it will ... it would definitely involve MAS," Fernandes said at the launch of the airline's loyalty programme BIG yesterday. Minutes earlier, Fernandes said the article in a local daily which reported on the venture was "totally wrong". He declined to comment on specifics of the article. News of Fernandes' plans to have a superpremium airline which would operate out of Subang airport went viral last week after a local newspaper, quoting sources, revealed details of the venture. According to sources who spoke to Business Times, the venture is more than just an idea as initial steps to approach both the Department of Civil Aviation and Skypark Subang have been taken. Malaysia Airlines also came out with a statement yesterday in response to reports of its possible involvement in the project. "We wish to clarify that at Malaysia Airlines, we will evaluate all proposals and decide appropriately only if it makes commercial sense to us," the national carrier said in its statement. When questioned on the existence of the company Caterham Jet Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Fernandes dismissed it, saying that it is one of hundreds of companies he and his partners have set up. "Because we have so many problems with names (we've registered) everything ... there's Caterham jet, Caterham hotel, Lotus this..., Lotus everything," he said. A quick check with the Companies Commission Malaysia show three companies registered with the Caterham name. Caterham Automobile (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Caterham Sports Cars (M) Sdn Bhd and CaterhamJet Malaysia Sdn Bhd. CaterhamJet was the latest addition, registered just over a month ago. Fernandes called the idea of a super-premium business airline a wonderful opportunity for people who don't want to queue and want a different experience, a private jet experience and can pay for it. "But it's an idea, whether we can make it work or not, who knows," he said. Meanwhile, AirAsia expects its loyalty programme, BIG, to generate RM500 million additional sales for the airline in 2012. Fernandes said the airline expects to double its loyalty card with prepaid cards in all of the markets by the first quarter of 2012. AirAsia has affiliates in Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Japan. Currently, only the Malaysian market loyalty card is attached to a prepaid card. Since its soft launch a month ago, some 65,000 customers from 115 countries have applied for their cards. The phasing out of the Tune Money VISA card will see another 40,000 cardholders migrating to the BIG card.