Tony Fernandes: how I brought no-frill flights to Malaysia

Tony Fernandes took Easyjet's low-overheads flights model and transferred it to Malaysia. Now, his Air Asia turns over £500m a year.

Many children want to grow up and become airline pilots. But Malaysian-born Tony Fernandes's ambition was to own an airline. "I was 12 and a student at Epsom College. It was like a borstal, but my father, a communist doctor, said I couldn't fly home to Kuala Lumpur for half term because it was too expensive. There began my quest to start a longhaul, low-cost carrier."

A London School of Economics graduate, Fernandes, now 44, trained as an accountant under Richard Branson at Virgin before joining Warner Music and rising to head its south Asian operation. He left in 2001. Sceptical (rightly, as it turned out) of the firm's plans to merge with AOL, he cashed in $250,000 of stock options and flew home from New York to Malaysia via London.

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Jody Clarke

Jody studied at the University of Limerick and was a senior writer for MoneyWeek. Jody is experienced in interviewing, for example digging into the lives of an ex-M15 agent and quirky business owners who have made millions. Jody’s other areas of expertise include advice on funds, stocks and house prices.