AirAsia was sold before October 2001 .
On 8 September 2001 , the heavily indebted airline was bought by former Time Warner executive Tony Fernandes and Kamarudin Meranun 's company Tune Air Sdn Bhd for the token sum of one ringgit ( about US $ 0.26 at the time ) with US $ 11 million ( MYR 40 million ) worth of debts .
AirAsia