India's perception of low-cost carriers has been badly damaged and bruised by failed promises, said AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes in an exclusive interaction with Entrepreneur magazine.
Not one to mince any words, Fernandes said that "too many people in the airline business have an ego the size of an A380."
"If we need to be successful in the Indian market, we need to be innovative. We have to do things that have not been done before," he said.
AirAsia Berhad has received an approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to invest into a proposed Indian joint venture airline together with Tata Sons Ltd and Arun Bhatia of Telestra Tradeplace Pvt Ltd.
The joint venture, where AirAsia would invest 49 percent, Tata Sons would invest 30 percent and Bhatia would invest the remaining 21 percent, would operate from Chennai, focusing on providing Tier II and Tier III city connectivity to travellers.
20/05/13 Ankush Chibber/moneycontrol.com
