Power With The People

Meet the Singlish-speaking, Baijiu-guzzling Head Honcho That Is Airasia’s Kathleen Tan, Who Cracked the China Market for the Budget Airline With Charm, Guts and Social Media.

- Koh Yuen Lin

WHAT CAN CHARM BRING?

For some: a free meal. For the more enterprising: followers on social media. For the exceptional few who know the value of charisma: billions in revenue.

That’s what Kathleen Tan did. “In 2004, Tony told me to ‘go change China.’ I went there. And I charmed them,” she says, unabashedly. After all, why be bashful when one has achieved the improbable, given China’s domestic aviation market then and Tan’s own industry inexperience at the time? That was the year Tony Fernandes bought over debt-laden AirAsia.

Whatever she knew of budget airlines at that point, the former managing director of Warner Music Singapore learnt from books. With no industry background or connections, she cold-called airports and provincial government offices. She was one woman from a Malaysian low-cost carrier diving into a male-dominated China aviation industry. Yet, within half a year, AirAsia became the first budget airline to fly to China, a market that contributes some 40 per cent to the group’s revenue.

In the first nine years of her tenure with AirAsia, the company’s fleet swelled from 17 to 143 aircraft. Revenues surged more than 10-fold. Since 2011, AirAsia has been reaping annual revenues of over US$1 billion (S$1.4 billion).

Call it the Midas touch. Call it EQ. Call it mojo. Whatever you call it, Tan’s clearly got it – and she isn’t afraid to use it.

OUR FIRST MEETING