Tatas have been superbly transparent: Tony Fernandes, Air Asia

Air Asia's Tony Fernandes can be a difficult man to pin down for an interview, preferring as he does to operate through Twitter to get his views across - in 140-character bursts of ebullience.

When asked for an interview, he said he'd not given one for "three months" but eventually agreed to answer ET's questions. Owner of Queens Park Rangers football club and former team principal of the Caterham Formula 1 team, Fernandes recently added to his resume by becoming a television anchor, helming the Asian version of The Apprentice.

He spoke to ET over the phone about Air Asia, the Tata-SIA venture and Indian aviation in general. Edited excerpts.

What transpired at the board meeting? Things that you can share?

It was an excellent meeting. We discussed strategy and we are very focused on changing Indian aviation. I am not going to share any plans yet.

With Air Asia India getting its most important approval, and the rest expected to be a formality, how soon do you expect the airline to fly?

There is no schedule. We will finalise the schedule once we believe we can fly. But yes, we are getting closer.

Air Asia's strength as you always mention is scaling up rapidly. Do we expect a ramp up of operations quickly?

We have five countries where we operate. We'll be scaling up quite quickly. There's no two ways about it. We will go for aggressive expansion. If we need to buy more aircraft, we'll buy more aircraft. But we are not going to bare all our secrets through the media.

Indian carriers barring one are bleeding. How confident are you about making profits?

I am very confident that we'll make money in the first year.

The ministry has made moves to ease the minimum 20-aircraft, 5-year period for Indian carriers to fly abroad? Are you ready?

We are not going to be a small airline in India anyway. But I don't think airlines should be restricted by those kind of policies. I imagine we'll have 50 aircraft in three years.

So will you also plan international operations for Air Asia India?

I think Indian airlines are at a disadvantage. Foreign airlines have no restriction on flying abroad. I think Indian jobs are being lost and the Indian economy is at a disadvantage because of the five-year limit. Let's hope there is some change.

But would you plan to go international, if rules allow you?

We'll consider for sure.

What would your fleet size be, as we hear that a significant part of the orders may be routed to India?

It depends. If we get an international flying permit quicker we'll grow our fleet size quicker. It also depends on getting the right airport and a more understanding state government... we'll grow quicker...

So we'll wait and see. I'll wait for the Air Asia India management and board to chalk out the plans rather than saying something myself.