Mr Fernandes, the chairman of English Premier League football club Queens Park Rangers, bought AirAsia from the Malaysian government in September 2001 for one ringgit — about 26 US cents — at a time when it was $11 million in debt and only owned two passenger jets.

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AirAsia now has subsidiaries in India, Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, and flies a fleet of 86 aircraft to 100 destinations in 22 countries, with most flights operating out of Kuala Lumpur international airport.

AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes says the missing plane was in “good condition”. Photo: AAP

AirAsia X is the international operation of AirAsia which keeps  costs down  using a common ticketing system and avoiding airports with high fees.

After the disappearance of AirAsia flight QZ8501, Mr Fernandes flew to Surabaya and, along with Indonesian officials, updated distraught relatives of passengers at a makeshift crisis centre at the airport in Indonesia’s second largest city.

“This is my worst nightmare,” Mr Fernandes said on Twitter. “But there’s no stopping,” he said of the search.

Trick to airline’s success was to ‘keep it simple’

Mr Fernandes was born in Kuala Lumpur in 1964 and attended the city’s Alice Smith School.

At the age of 12, he was sent to boarding school at Epsom College in southern England before taking an accounting degree at the London School of Economics.

The distance from Kuala Lumpur meant travelling home each term was out of the question.

Mr Fernandes has been compared to Virgin’s Sir Richard Branson and worked briefly as an auditor for Virgin Atlantic and financial controller for Virgin Records in London from 1987 to 1989.

Even though he famously bought the struggling AirAsia for 26 US cents, Mr Fernandes mortgaged his home and used personal savings to acquire the company because of its huge debts.

He said his timing was perfect: aircraft leasing costs had fallen 40 per cent post-September 11, airline layoffs meant plenty of experienced staff were available, and he believed Malaysian travellers were ready to embrace cheap air travel, saving time and money in a tight economy.

By 2014, the airline had an annual turnover of more than $US1 billion and more than 10,000 employees and Mr  Fernandes had a personal net worth of $798 million.

He said his business approach was to be “single-minded about the operation and to keep it simple”.

“I always dreamt about doing a long-haul low-cost airline,” he told the BBC in 2010.

“For my first ever flight in AirAsia X, I refused to do the launch to Australia and China and everyone thought it was a bit odd, but I wanted my first flight to be London–Kuala Lumpur.

“It was very emotional for me 35 years on.”

Hotel chain, reality TV make for varied interests

Mr Fernandes credits his airlines’ success to quick turnaround of aircraft and a “walk-around” management style: he works with ground crew and cabin crew for several days each month.

“If you sit up in your ivory tower and just look at financial reports, you’re going to make some big mistakes,” he told the BBC.

For six consecutive years – from 2009 to 2014 – AirAsia won the World’s Best Low-Cost Airline by UK-based Skytrax consultancy.

“Good leadership is to know when to go and you only succeed as a good leader if you’ve transported someone else in and the company gets stronger,” he said in 2010.

“I’m very confident that when I do go, and my sell-by date does come, the company will still grow from strength to strength and then I would have said I’ve succeeded.”

In 2007, Mr Fernandes started a hotel chain, Tune Hotels, based on the no-frills concept, with properties in Britain, Australia and the Far East.

He is also involved in the reality television series The Apprentice Asia as host and business mentor.

Mr Fernandes founded the Caterham Formula One team, which raced as Lotus Racing and Team Lotus in 2010 and 2011, but in July 2014 Caterham F1 was sold to a Swiss and Middle Eastern consortium.

Mr Fernandes has been given the titles of Tan Sri and Dato’ Sri by the King of Malaysia, the Legion of Honour by the French government, and a CBE by the British government “for services to promote commercial and educational links” between Malaysia and the United Kingdom.