AirAsia boss Tony Fernandes has urged Asean members to allow majority ownership of airlines in each country by citizens of the region.
He floated the idea at an aviation conference in Bangkok on Tuesday as one of the key steps the 10-nation Southeast Asian bloc should take to ensure the success of the ambitious Asean Single Aviation Market...
Mr Fernandes wants each member state to remove restrictions on foreign ownership of airlines and to allow citizens of fellow Asean members to have a majority stake, now reserved for nationals of the country...
Most states in the block have different foreign ownership restrictions. For instance, an airline in Thailand needs to be at least 51% owned by Thai citizens, with a maximum 49% share for foreigners.
Mr Fernandes said the foreign share should be granted to Asean citizens in preference to other foreign investors, though he did not specify the limit of those Asean holdings.
Mr Fernandes, who controls Asia's largest low-cost carrier group including two units in Thailand, believes an Asean majority ownership allowance would strengthen the region's airline industry.
In an interview with the Bangkok Post on Wednesday, Prof Alan Tan, an expert in aviation law at the National University of Singapore, supported Mr Fernandes' call for a model that has been applied in the...
The concept of creating what he terms an Asean community airline will facilitate funding for a capital-intensive airline and is a way to foster economic integration, he said.
"The benefits are that you have a strong airline that has capital around the region and can fight the big guys from China, India and Europe," said Prof Tan. "As a small region, we need to unite ourselves...
He said there was an ideal size of Asean ownership but, technically speaking, a community airline could be owned 100% by Asean citizens.
"Though not majority-owned by investors in the country where it is established, that airline could still be considered an airline where it is registered," Prof Tan said.
He recognised that a huge challenge to the Asean community airline concept was to change the mindset of member countries.
"The EU has done it as it has the European Commission to force member states to fall in line with the community interest," he said. "But over here we still think of individual national interest, not as...
Meanwhile, Mr Fernandes made proposals for Asam to gain momentum.
These include a single Asean immigration lane, business travel cards and standardised bilingual immigration/customs forms and visas; an Asean civil aviation regulator and air traffic regulator, common...