Last Thursday I took a flight on AirAsia from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. And when I fly, I like to read what the Chief Executive is saying in the in-flight magazine.

You can tell so much about the company from the CEO’s articles. Read the QANTAS one and it always strikes me as ‘stuffy’. Read the VirginBlue one from CEO Brett Godfrey and it’s ALWAYS upbeat, always focussed on the customer (in Virgin’s case, the “guest’). And it’s always fresh as opposed to stuffy. But back to AirAsia.

I met AirAsia founder Tony (now Dato Sri) Fernandez four years ago. And you just knew that if anyone was going to create a great company it would be him. He bought AirAsia for $1 and it’s now worth around $4.2 Billion! And it’s recently been honoured by Fast Company as one of the top 50 Innovative Companies in the world.

In any event, the article in AirAsia’s in-flight magazine wasn’t written by Tony, it was written by the Head of Branding, William Low. He has a great way of expressing what the ‘ride’ of creating something great is all about.

And it effectively captures precisely how I feel about Buy1GIVE1. Read on and enjoy the feeling.

If you’ve been around children, you’ll know what it feels like to be in the company of positive energy, enthusiasm and fun. It’s both pure and intoxicating at the same time.

And in a lot of ways, AirAsia is like a child.

A child knows no rules, limitations or boundaries. Always determined to ask for (and get!) what he wants, no matter the price. Growing up AirAsia faced countless challenges. From lobbying for the Kuala-Lumpur-Singapore flights to battling new low-cost carriers in the region, AirAsia often behaved the way a child does: fearlessly. Each battle or new experience proved an invaluable lesson.

AirAsia started off looking up to the big boys and aspired impatiently to be like them. RyanAir in Europe and Southwest in America were heroes to this child, who wanted to bring that convenience and revolution into Asia. We wanted to fly r=the ASEAN dream: to reach farther than any other carrier, to connect even the most remote areas.

We had the loftiest ambitions and just couldn’t wait to grow up. Yet we knew we needed to work very hard to keep innovating and improving in order to be a brand leader in a fiercely competitive marketplace.

Six years on, we’re averaging 3000 flights a week across more than 100 routes and we’ve flown nearly 50 million delighted guests. We’ve boldly ordered 175 Airbus A320s to take you where you’ve always wanted to go. Today we fly to the most destinations in Indonesia from our Malaysian hub. In fact, no airline comes close to taking you to more ASEAN destinations than AirAsia. And with AirAsia X our wings now spread as far as Australia and beyond.

Being recently named Airline of the Year 2007 for Asia Pacific Region and the Middle East was such a blast. And having Fast Company magazine in the US vote us as one of the most innovative companies in the world was like getting an Olympic medal. We’re talking about being in the same league as with giants such as Google, Amazon, BMW and Apple.

We never much liked looking back on our past achievements to feel good, but it does help us realise that we’ve we really grown. We’re seriously beginning to live our dreams now. What’s next and where next, you ask?

If AirAsia is the bold, dreamy kid growing up, then the most adventurous playgrounds are still out there waiting to be discovered.

Next to our planes, the most important and cherished assets are our people. Close to 6,000 AirAsians power this impossible dream day and night, round the clock. It’s not an easy job and it takes a lot of committed individuals to keep it going. Yet like little kids in a playground, most of us never really feel that it’s a job. And wherever we end up in life down the road, AirAsians will always remember these early years of fun, excitement and madness.

This dream would have gone nowhere without your faith in us. So thank you – may you never lose the enthusiasm of a child either. So hurry and take that trip that you’ve been thinking about. Just pack your bags and go.

The playground’s calling.

It’s me (Paul) again. Isn’t this so cool. And the B1G1 playground is not only waiting. It’s there for us to play in. right now. As ONE.