AirAsia’s chief executive Tony Fernandes will open a chain of budget hotels to complement the operations of the region’s most profitable low-cost carrier, a report said. The first in the chain of 60 to 70 hotels is expected to open for business at the end of this year in Malaysia before eventual expansion throughout Southeast Asia, the New Straits Times reported, quoting an unnamed source.

“His long-term plan is to eventually have hotels in all AirAsia destinations,” the source was quoted as saying.

The chain will be called Tune Hotel.com after AirAsia’s holding company, Tune Air, with 100 to 250 rooms in each hotel costing between 50 and 100 ringgit (27 dollars) a night, the source said.

Fernandes is expected to either purchase or lease existing hotels and remodel them, or build new ones.
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