A total of 5 (five) new sections have been added to it, including 2 new chapters containing an interview with Tony Fernandes, the dynamic CEO of AirAsia itself.

Tony gives some deep insights into his AirAsia “baby” and what makes it such a success. Check out his background and see how it helped shape his thoughts and actions today.

Discover who he considers his heroes to be, and who his “enemies” are – including how he deals with them (hint: it’s NOT what you think).

Most importantly, you’ll discover what he considers is the key to sustaining the low-cost model. And no, it isn’t just hardware and technology.

This Revised and Updated Edition also contains 2 new Special Sections on AirAsia’s business approaches, including how it managed to brand itself into the minds of millions of travellers all over the world using “unusual” marketing tactics (you’ll be surprised to discover that some of those tactics are actually available), as well as AirAsia’s additional sources of income other than ticket sales that bring it hundreds of millions more in additional revenue (no, they’re not only from the food they sell onboard)!

This is THE definitive book on AirAsia from a neutral 3rd party’s perspective, with amazing details of its history, founders, business strategies and tactics, many challenges and phenomenal successes.

The fact that it has been published and became a best-seller right from the get-go is proof yet again that the Law of Attraction exists because that’s exactly how I have envisioned it.

So as you’ve already seen many times in the past, I know exactly what I need to do to channel the Law of Attraction into my life.

And in just a few days, YOU, too, will know how to channel the Law of Attraction into YOUR life as you mingle with your peers at the Life Changing Party.

Now do the following:

1. Buy this latest edition of The AirAsia Story
Be blown away by this remarkable tale that only comes along once in a blue moon, that is also a first-class education in business strategies, tactics and approaches. Get 5 additional sections for the same price!

You can get it in any major bookstore in Malaysia right now. It’ll be available in Singapore in early January.

2. Go for the Life Changing Party
You really don’t want to miss out on the Party of the Year, where you’re designing the FUTURE you.

I’ve envisioned it to be a smash hit – and it will be.

Exactly like how the founders of AirAsia have envisioned their airline to be a smash hit.

You’ll soon see.

Sen Ze

P.S. You can link to this post with the following URL:

http://www.SenZe.com/business-blog/AirAsia/airasia-bestseller.htm

Technorati Tags: AirAsia, AirAsia bestseller, AirAsia book, Law of Attraction, Life Changing Party

I went to a bookstore about 2 months ago and bought 2 books that I had no intention of reading anytime soon.

They’re still on my table and I still haven’t found the time or urge to go through them yet.

I’m not saying those 2 books aren’t worthy of my time. They’re both updated and revised editions, which means that they’ve already gone past their initial print runs, and therefore are doing very well indeed.

The reason for my lack of “involvement” with those 2 books is simple.

I was finishing up on another book of mine with my co-author that would complement the 2 books I’ve found perfectly.

Buying those 2 books simply spurred me on to finish the endless scanning of the text for mistakes so that it could be published.

Otherwise I could go on forever, trying to make a good book as perfect as it could be.

Thus after about 8 months or so from the time the idea was conceived with my publisher and co-author, it’s finally published!

Here’s the third book in the “series”. No prizes for guessing which 2 books have been sitting on my table unread, and which one has been taking up my time for the past few months:

Yep, “The AirAsia Story” is my 3rd book in print format. It’s a book that had been begging to be written for quite a while.

And together with my wonderful co-author Jayne Ng, it’s finally done.

I was involved in almost every aspect of its production including coming up with the title and sub-title, back cover description, conceptualizing the cover design, overseeing the layout, discussing with Jayne on the content we would like to present, proof-reading and editing – in addition to writing parts of it.

We have an Editor to edit our work too, but there were quite a few last-minute additions that we simply had to fit in that resulted in some editing being done on our own as well.

It isn’t the way other publishing companies would follow – but it is ours’. Our publisher, Adrian (of Kanyin Books) gave us full creative control with some awesome ideas of his own to boot – and the result is a book we’re proud to be associated with.

We timed it to coincide with the launch of the last Harry Potter book 2 Saturdays ago (this is another Pajamas marketing lesson for you), but some last-minute delays ensured that it was not to be.

Nevertheless, it hit the bookstores just a few days ago.

And word has it that its sales are making Adrian a very happy puppy.

Here’s what the back cover says:

Since bursting onto the scene in 2002, AirAsia has become one of the most successful budget airlines in Asia today.

The book traces AirAsia’s eventful history from its humble beginnings as a small-time player with only two aircraft to its credit and $40 million in debt from Day 1 of its operations, to its present-day success as THE trendsetter among Asian low-cost airlines. It now carries millions of passengers every year, making millions in net profits in the process.

This happened in the aftermath of 9/11 and despite very stiff competition from many other budget airlines in the region as well as leadership from a CEO who was unfamiliar with the airlines industry.

Yet AirAsia’s journey to success has been anything but smooth.

This book reveals its challenges, hurdles, bumps and how it overcame them all in more detail for you to have a fuller understanding of just how remarkable its achievement really is.

Get ready to be blown away by the resilience, daring and imagination of its founders who all bravely took on the brutal circumstances they were in (and still are) that resulted in AirAsia becoming THE brand on the lips of budget air travellers all over Asia in just a few short years.

You’ll also discover some of the people behind AirAsia who you don’t normally hear of, and what their roles are. It’s a fascinating read that takes you into the realm of a real business with real challenges.

AirAsia fully practices Pajamas business and marketing principles to reap its millions of dollars in revenue every year – starting from year 1 of its operations.

It’s a sexy overnight success story that is quite irresistible to not just me, but anybody who has been exposed to parts of the AirAsia story these past few years.

Go to any major bookstore if you’re in Malaysia and look for it.

If you’re living outside Malaysia, click below to order it and have it delivered directly to your doorsteps within a few weeks:

Quantity 2CheckOut.com Inc. (Ohio, USA) is an authorized retailer for goods and services provided by All Net Profits Center.

Postage and handling costs have already been included in the price. While this will cost you more than if you were to buy from a bookstore, I’ll make it up to you by giving you a head start over everybody else with a NEW, yet-to-be-released Special Report of mine that covers some of the most interesting and profitable online business models you may have come across without realizing their significance in terms of generating millions of dollars in revenue – with the least amount of work possible.

It’s a brand new Special Report, but you’ll get it first even before I officially announce it to my list.

Completion of this Speical Report is only a few weeks away at most (probably within 2 weeks or so).

This Special Report may make you a millionaire many times over as it will generate BIG money-making ideas for you that you will never be able to come up with on your own. Those business models certainly have made their owners very rich indeed. Put your own twists on them, or combine a few together…

This Special Report is different from my classic Mini-Encyclopedia Of Low-Cost, High-Profit Internet Business Models that has been selling very well over the past few years now. There are an additional 20 examples of just ONE type of Internet Business Model which I have not included in the Mini-E yet (the Mini-E itself contains 19 other different Internet Business Models with numerous examples of their applications in the real world. It’s a MUST for your Internet Business and Internet Marketing library!).

Some of those 20 examples require sophisticated programming and infrastructure capabilities, while others are so simple you’ll laugh yourself silly as to why you didn’t think of them or do them on your own first.

To get the new Special Report (when it’s ready) before everybody else does, order “The AirAsia Story” from the link above.

Now that this is done, there are quite a number of other print and electronic books in my head that I need to give life to in the months ahead, some of which will absolutely delight you.

For sure.

Talk soon!

Sen Ze

P.S. You can link to this post with the following URL:

http://www.SenZe.com/business-blog/AirAsia/the-flying-trilogy-of-profits.htm

Technorati Tags: Air Asia, Tony Fernandes, Ryanair, Easyjet, MAS, airlines, aircraft, travelling, Kanyin books, profitable business model, internet business models, internet marketing, Sen Ze’s Mini-Encyclopedia Of Low-Cost, High-Profit Internet Business Models, Mini-E

Thus the delay in my Blog posts as I have to buy a new Toshiba notebook and re-install the 4 dozen or so programs that I use regularly. I am still doing this every single day, and will continue to do so for a while yet.

In the process, I discovered some awesome alternatives that will enable me to leave my notebook at home at any time and still be able to do what I needed to do to run my Internet Businesses. More on this revelation in my future Blog posts.

However, I can tell you we live in the 3rd wave of Internet revolution where the humble Browser will be taking over some of the software we currently install on our computers. Microsoft is the company that will be affected the most, unless it takes quick measures to counter the threat posed by its rival 800-pound Gorrilla.

That Gorrilla is Google (who else?).

But more on this later as I wrap up the discussion on AirAsia’s runaway success that I started 2 posts ago at http://SenZe.com/business-blog/airasia/airasia-factors.htm and http://www.SenZe.com/business-blog/airlines/AirAsia.htm – by asking you whether you remember the spectacular burst of the dotcom bubble some years ago…

Where start-up companies with nothing more than big but unproven ideas were attracting BILLIONS of dollars in venture capital funding to start and grow their business on the Internet?

BILLIONS OF DOLLARS were in turn spent on hiring lots of people, renting huge premises, leasing heavy office and computer equipment in quite a few places around the world.

Hundreds of millions of dollars more were spent on heavy advertising in the media to draw the public to their web sites.

Never a day went by when you didn’t hear of “this dot com company” or “that dot com company” screaming out to you for your attention for you to avail yourself of their products or services.

If you were lucky enough to be caught up in the frenzy, you’ll remember very clearly what that feeling was. Everywhere I looked I saw ads for a dot com.

Some were very nice to look at with extremely catchy tag lines.

Unfortunately, most of those companies’ business models were based mainly on the hype surrounding the Internet, unproven big ideas and the “First Mover Advantage” – with the ultimate reward for their founders and backers being a listing of their companies on the Stock Exchange.

Multi-millionaires sprung up overnight from Internet ventures that got listed which excited the venture capitalists and entrepreneurs even more, which resulted in even more billions of dollars being pumped into new Internet projects.

Because at that time it would appear that the journey to millionairedom was just a few months away, rather than the years it would take the conventional way.

Venture Capitalists were on the prowl to fund a good management team with a big idea that had the Internet involved in some way.

Because the Internet was very new then, nobody would know whether those big ideas would bring in the gold. However the game wasn’t to see if they would – the game was to list the dot com companies as quickly as possible at all cost, and get rich from the exercise.

Of course, it was only a matter of time before things became clearer to those involved, with very painful consequences.

Here’s the lesson in this fiasco that went directly into the marketing books of shame.

No proper business model that wasn’t going to be profitable in the long run was ever going to survive any hype generated for it.

In other words, if a business cannot make enough money to offset the cost of running itself, no amount of hype or the application of the “First Mover Advantage” is going to change that fact.

Now the First Mover Advantage is a concept that says that if you’re the first to be seen everywhere offering your product or service on the Internet (even though you may not be the FIRST to do so, only the first to be SEEN to do so), you’ll gain a great business advantage over all your competitors who came onto the scene later, or who were there earlier but only advertised themselves strongly after you came onto the scene.

By being first, you’ll get the most number of customers and you’ll make the most number of sales and you’ll be the preferred choice for your Prospects to do business with, because it’s always easier to remember the first company to offer a certain product or service.

This belief in the First Mover Advantage concept caused hundreds of millions of dollars to be spent on HUGE media campaigns very quickly by Internet companies during the dot com boom.

They were advertising everywhere – on the Internet itself, on television, radio, newspapers, bus panel, billboards, and just about any spot you can think of that could hold an advertising message.

They advertised during prime time in the media (like during the Super Bowl, for example), the time when a single ad could cost millions of dollars.

Most of those companies were wound up in no time, when it became clear that they were burning up more money in operations and advertising cost than they were earning them in pursuit of the “First Mover Advantage”.

The end result?

The only ones who got filthy rich were the Advertising Companies (if they were paid before their clients went bust), and the lucky few who managed to list their companies before the bubble burst on them.

Now you may think that the “First Mover Advantage” concept isn’t a valid one.

But you would be wrong.

The problem isn’t with this concept, but the fact that their business models weren’t profitable in the first place.

Nobody had done their business the way they had on the Internet before – so nobody would know how it would turn out.

The hype of untold riches apparently suggested by the hyper-growing Internet became too much of a tempation until all good reasoning and business practices were ignored or glossed over in favor of the “First Mover Advantage”.

But then let’s look at AirAsia.

It was already a profitable company in its FIRST YEAR of operations.

This is even more remarkable when you know that the airline that AirAsia took over to be able to operate its business had a $10 million debt before it was acquired!

The low-cost carrier model isn’t a “new and unproven” model. It was already working very well in Europe in the form of RyanAir and EasyJet – and the founders of AirAsia saw a huge virgin opportunity in Asia for the same type of airline to operate in since neither of them were in Asia (they still aren’t) due to barriers for their expansion to this region.

Thus AirAsia took took a proven model from elsewhere for the travel industry that’s virtually the same everywhere in terms of needs and applied it to a different GEOGRAPHICAL market, making certain adjustments where necessary.

Armed with a proven business model that emphasizes cost savings both in what it offers its Customers and in its operations, it then set out to create the First Mover Advantage as best it can with its very simple and effective tagline that says, “Now Everyone Can Fly“.

I saw AirAsia’s billboards at certain strategic locations (like bus stops) when I was in Macau and Hong Kong recently (and yes, I flew AirAsia to Macau and then took a Hovercraft to Hong Kong) . It advertises its low fares regularly in the media (mainly newspapers). Its CEO gives interviews to the media and other special events regularly to tell AirAsia’s remarkable success story and growth and the media lap them all up since its story is a sexy and successful one.

It has become Malaysia’s pride side by side with the country’s other world-class airline, MAS (Malaysia Airlines). It also moved quickly to gain a foothold in its neighbouring countries by creating partnerships with them in the form of Thai AirAsia and Indonesia AirAsia. It is now flying into parts of China.

But what about its competitors? It has Singapore’s Tiger Airways, Australia’s Jetstar Asia (owned by Qantas), Thailand’s Nok Air and 1-2-Go, and Phillipines’ Cebu Pacific, India’s numerous players called Kingfisher, SpiceJet, IndiGo, Air India Express, Air Deccan, Premier Air, Air One, Air Dravida and Jagson Airlines, Hong Kong’s Oasis Hong Kong Airlines, Macau’s Viva Macau and many more for company.

The huge Asian market certainly has room for more than one player in the low-cost carrier business. While AirAsia has done very well so far, the First Mover Advantage is clearly its main business strategy which led to crucial partnerships with other countries.

The key to the First Mover Advantage isn’t to be the first, but to be SEEN to be the first – and in this aspect we can safely assume that not all the above airlines “get” it the way AirAsia does.

Here are your key Business In Your Pajamas lessons in this post:

1. Do a proven business model in a DIFFERENT location that have your Prospects, but with few or no competition
You can discover proven business models done in the Internet World with my Mini-Encyclopedia found below:

Click here for the Mini-Encyclopedia Of Low-Cost, High-Profit Internet Business Models.

However since you’re on the Internet, you really have only one location, so you’ll use those proven business models for your own “niche” instead. An Internet Business Model that works for one niche (say the “fitness” niche) will work for another (say the “romance” or “dog lovers” niche).

2. Create First Mover Advantage
It can be done without paying for advertising if you know how to use free publicity techniques to have your business seen all over the world in various media outlets. AirAsia’s founders made full use of the media by giving interviews that tell a lot more about how they operate. They get full coverage worth millions of dollars, which costs them nothing exccept their time in giving the interviews.

You can do the same thing too, as I have done for myself in the past on many occasions – even appearing on CNN News!. Check out how this is done easily below, right now:

Click Here To Get Publicity In The Media Worth Millions Of Dollars For Your Business – Without Having To Pay For It!

There are of course many other factors other than “First Mover Advantage” in the success story of AirAsia so far despite intense competition now, but I’ll leave that for another day.

Cheers!

Warm Regards,
Sen Ze

P. S. You can link to this post by using the following URL:

http://www.SenZe.com/business-blog/AirAsia/first-mover-advantage.htm

However, there are many other factors that contributed to their success. Just in case you’re wondering, AirAsia was profitable in its first year of operations.

This is quite a feat especially when you consider the huge capital outlay required in getting planes, paying its pilots and other staff plus a zillion other expenses that seem to crop up when you’re starting off, especially when it’s an airline.

Here are some of those factors:

1. Travel is a HUGE industry
Billions of people around the world move from one location to another for various reasons every single day. This will continue to happen until the end of time. If you were to start a business, Internet or otherwise – one way to increase your chances of success is to start within an industry with lots of Prospects, find places they’re not being served properly, and then offer your products/services to them.

2. People will travel again and again
You get repeat business from the same Customers. There is no better business than repeat business. This is why it’s a good idea to target business models where the customers naturally become repeat customers either through choice or even better, through a lack of choice.

3. Asia is a HUGE market
Asia is the world’s largest continent. It has BILLIONS of people living in it. It covers about 30% of Earth’s land area. A small percentage of this market is enough to make AirAsia very happy for a long time to come.

4. AirAsia followed an established business model
The low-cost airline model was copied from Europe, which was in turn copied from the US. The experiments have already been conducted by those who blazed the trail earlier. Starting a low-cost carrier in a huge virgin market correctly just about guarantees success provided its cost can be controlled well.

5. The low-cost carrier model keeps costs down to the bare minimum
This is one of the keys to its success. Keeping costs down can take many forms and I simply can’t tell you all of them.

However, here are a few:

Most flights are about 3 – 3.5 hours max. This enables AirAsia to use the same set of crew to make a return flight from the arriving destination back to the departing destination, carrying another load of passengers in the process – all without any further increase in the cost of the crew.

There is also no cost for accommodating the crew at the arriving destination since they’re back home on the same day, within an 8 – 10 hour period (which is about the same amount of time some of us work in our jobs). And because of this, there is no additional cost for paying the crew “subsistence allowances”.

With the tremendous cost savings, AirAsia plans its destinations very carefully, flying only to places that can be reached in 3-3.5 hours. However, if necessary, flights of 4 hours’ durations or longer can be considered if it makes business sense to have them.

Also customers are encouraged to purchase tickets on the Internet so there’s no need to employ numerous staff to manage ticket counters although it’s not fully Internet-based yet. No tickets are issued, only a ticket code and the fight details that the customer prints out himself.

There are many other ingenious Pajamas-style cost-minimization activities, but the above alone save AirAsia millions of dollars in salaries and costs every single month.

6. A profitable business model
AirAsia operates a fleet of Airbuses (model A320) with a passenger capacity of 180 (with plush leather seats).

If each ticket costs $200, then with a full load, one plane will earn $200 x 180 = $36,000 per trip. With each crew going on 2 trips a day (to and fro) with 2 full loads, each plane earns $36,000 x 2 = $72,000 per day – without any or little increase in staff expenses!

If each ticket costs $300, then 2 trips with a full load of 180 passengers will earn the airline $300 x 180 = $54,000 x 2 = $108,000. Now multiply that by 10 planes a day each doing $108,000 (as a quick example) and AirAsia earns a cool $1 million a day!

Of course, planes are not full every day, and AirAsia may not be flying 10 planes with round trips a day, plus AirAsia does a lot of promotions with low-cost seats - but the above is a very conservative calculation since some journeys can cost $400 or $500 per seat (and still be cheaper by 50 – 80% compared to the regular airlines), depending on the destination.

With it targeting 60 planes to be in operation by 2011 – you can easily imagine the amount of profit it can generate!

The key to more profits for AirAsia is more routes and more planes. With this in mind, it is already hoping to be operating 100 Airbuses eventually!

7. With such low prices – everybody CAN fly
Low-cost carriers can easily tap into a new source of Prospects where they didn’t exist before – those who couldn’t afford to fly the usual airlines. Now if you have a few bucks (if you wait for the Special Deals) or a hundred or two (instead of a thousand or two), you can fly to regions around you regularly without having to lose your shirt .

This is in addition to the millions of flyers who are now switching to low-cost carriers because of the cost savings (especially the frequent flyers), and corporations who are now sending their executives to meet up with their business partners the new low-cost way (who cares how their company sent them over?).

In my next post I’ll talk about another crucial factor in AirAsia’s phenomenal success, which brings you back to something quite familiar that involved the Internet and billions of dollars down the drain.

Stay tuned.

Warm Regards,

Sen Ze
P.S. Join The Pajamas Revolution Here

P.P.S. You can link to this post with the following URL:

http://senze.com/business-blog/airasia/airasia-factors.htm