Dato' Anthony Francis Fernandes (born 30 April 1964; also known as Tony Fernandes) is a
Malaysian entrepreneur and the founder of Tune Air Sdn. Bhd., who introduced the first
budget no-frills airline,
AirAsia, to Malaysians with the tagline "Now everyone can fly".
He rose to prominence by turning
AirAsia, a failing government-linked commercial airline, into a highly successful budget airline
public-listed company. Fernandes was also instrumental in lobbying the then-Malaysian Prime Minister,
Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in mid-2003, to propose the idea of
open skies agreements with neighbouring
Thailand,
Indonesia, and
Singapore. As a result, these nations have granted landing rights to AirAsia and other
discount carriers.