Air Asia was established in 1993 and commenced its operations on 18th November 1996. This airline was originally founded by a government owned conglomerate DRB-Hicom. However, on 2nd December 2001, the heavily indebted airline was purchased by former Time Warner executive Tony Fernandes company Tune Air for the token sum of one ringgit. Fernandes proceeded to engineer a remarkable turnaround, turning a profit in 2002 and launching new routes from its hub in KLIA at breakneck speed which undercutting former monopoly operator Malaysia Airlines with promotional fares as low as one ringgit.
In 2003, Air Asia has opened a second hub at Senai International Airport in Johor Behr which is near Singapore. And, it launched its first international flight to Bangkok. Air Asia has therefore started a Thai subsidiary, added Singapore to the destination list, and it commenced flights to Indonesia. Also, flight to Macau was started in June 2004 and flight to Mainland China and the Philippines started in April 2005. In addition, the flight to Vietnam and Cambodia is in the year 2005 while to Brunei and Myanmar is in 2006. With a strong yet simple slogan "Now Everyone Can Fly", Air Asia has effectively placed its brand in customer's mind when comes to selection of flight. In Malaysia, Air Asia is the second powerful national airline. Also, it was the first successful low cost and ticket-less airline in the Southeast Asian region. It is main based in the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). And, Air Asia has a registered office in Petaling Jaya, Selangor and its head office is on the grounds of KLIA in Sepang, Selangor. In addition, Air Asia is one of the successful businesses that have adopted cost leadership thoroughly through effectiveness and efficiency of the operation management. Air Asia has broken the travel norms around the world speedily and has become the world's top airline. Beside this, Air Asia also has a route network that spans more than 20 countries; therefore it continues to pave the way for lower cost aviation through innovative solutions, more efficient processes and a passionate approach to the business.
The vision of Air Asia is to be the largest cost airline in Asia and for the purpose of serving the 3 billion people who are currently underserved with poor connectivity as well as high fares. There are 4 missions such as to be the best company to work for where the employees are treated as part of the big family in Air Asia, to create a ASEAN brand which is being recognized globally, to attain the lowest cost to make sure everyone in the world can fly with Air Asia, and to maintain the highest quality product by embracing technology in order to reduce cost and enhance the service levels of Air Asia