Bengaluru: AirAsia Berhad Group CEO Tony Fernandes on Monday announced receiving Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) status from the government of India.
“I am also delighted to share that I have been granted the Overseas Citizenship of India status. India has always been close to my heart as my father was from this country and Goa is my ancestral homeland,” Fernandes was quoted in a statement.
OCI confers same privileges as a Non-Resident Indian which includes 100 per cent shareholding in Indian airlines via automatic route.
The statement was issued to mark the completion of two years of operations of low-cost carrier AirAsia India, in which Fernandes is a partner.
“My father’s posting brought him to Malaysia, but he never stopped talking about Goa and the rest is history. I landed in Goa for the first time during the inaugural flight of AirAsia India from Bengaluru to Goa and I take immense pride in that,” Fernandes said.
Affirming the airline’s commitment to India, he said, “Since then there has been no looking back and AirAsia’s commitment to India has only kept growing stronger. We are here with a vision to revolutionise air travel in India and it is also our long term goal to link India to ASEAN and beyond.”
AirAsia X, Thai AirAsia, Indonesia AirAsia, AirAsia Philippines, AirAsia India and AirAsia Japan are the subsidiaries of Malaysian AirAsia Berhad.
IANS