“Dare to Dream, and from dreams come great things.” – Tony Fernandes, Founder of Air-Asia

This is AirAsia Bhd chief executive officer Datuk Tony Fernandes’ message to young entrepreneurs.

And it is perhaps this maxim that helped him win the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Malaysia 2006 Award. Fernandes also feels that Malaysia is a unique country, where “a nobody can go out there and do something.” Fernandes, who is also the recipient of the Master Entrepreneur of the Year Award, will be representing the country atMonte Carlo in May for the 7th Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Tony Fernandes founded Tune Air Sdn Bhd in 2001, with a vision to make air travel more affordable to Malaysians. With that in mind, Tony and his three partners bought over AirAsia from its owner DRB-Hicom. Tune Air’s initial project was to remodel AirAsia into a low fare no frills carrier after successful low fare airlines such as U.S.-based Southwest Airlines and Dublin-based Ryanair and create a new aviation product in Malaysia.Under Tony’s leadership, the fledging airline with a RM40 million debt became a blooming, thriving business. The airline repaid all debts and has been in a profitable position from the first day of operation. In less than 3 years, AirAsia grew from 2 modest Boeing 737-300 to 30 and is now operating over 100 domestic and international daily flights from hubs in KLIA, Johor Bahru , Bangkok and Jakarta.

Under his wings, AirAsia went on to revolutionize the air travel industry in Malaysia and pioneered the low cost phenomenon in Asia. In 2004, AirAsia formed successful joint ventures in Thailand and Indonesia where AirAsia holds 49% stake in both companies. Thai AirAsia, a joint venture with Shin Corporation, Thailand’s largest telecommunication conglomerate, took to the skies in Feb 2004 and has to date carried over 1 million guest in its first year of operations. PT AWAIR , re-launched as a low fare airline on Dec 8th 2004 presently served 5 domestic destinations in Indonesia.

So remember, all you need is a dream to begin, and that you have got to dare to believe it.