First up was Tony Fernandes, group CEO of AirAsia, who said he dressed up for the occasion. “Barry is always telling me I am the sloppiest CEO he’s ever known,” he said, referring to Diller, chairman and senior executive, Expedia Inc (left) sitting in the audience.

He recalled his first meeting with Diller – and yes, it was Diller who made the first move – and how it was love at first sight for him. 

You can sense the chemistry between the two men, and you can tell both are also consummate showmen from the way they presided over the press conference held at Theatreworks, the premises of one of Singapore’s top local theatre companies. Both he and Diller hail from similar industries, before getting into travel – entertainment. Diller was chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures, as well as Fox Broadcasting and 20th Century Fox.

Fernandes spoke of a dream he once had to control distribution, that he didn’t want to work with GDSs or OTAs and how no one in Asia had used the Internet to sell air tickets before AirAsia. But then came the opportunity to “revolutionise the online travel experience”. “This is so much more than just a flight and I have picked the Rolls Royce of partners, Barry Diller is second to none,” he said.

Together, he said, they would change the way people in Asia have their holidays and then he invited Diller to “dump your private jet and come fly low cost with us”.

Diller responded by saying he’d be happy to “fly in your plane”, adding, “It should be an uplifting experience from flying in your own plane and nobody else in sight.”

Jokes aside, the man who’s spearheaded the growth of Expedia into the world’s largest online travel company said he had sought Fernandes out after reading about AirAsia and was both impressed and intrigued by him and the airline’s story.

Also, he said, he had learnt lately that “when you want to develop things and you don’t have the ground experience to do so, the smartest thing you can do is align with someone who does”.

He said that it was “fool’s process” for any company to think that with arrogance, you could go into any market and work against the local market.

“Anybody who has run an American-based company must realize the world is flatter, smaller and more inter-connected than it used to be and the larger world, the developing world has so much energy that if you don’t figure out some way to be relevant, over time, you won’t have an everlasting enterprise.”

Diller, who said he first visited Asia some 30 years ago, said the region had truly increasing buoyant energy and enterprise “which still exists in parts of the USA” and that “it’s truly exciting to be in these places”.

Earlier, Fernandes had said initial courtship had been easy “until the lawyers came in”.  Talks had begun from last August, it seemed, and Kathleen Tan, his right-hand marketing chief and the bride who actually executed on the joint venture, spent all of last week holed up with American lawyers in a hotel room in Hong Kong to consummate the partnership. 

Said Diller, “The romance took a while and when other parties got involved, it elongated the process but for Expedia, it was but a second.”

Expedia, he said, was one of the very early Internet concepts that had traveled by the power of technology and if you put that together with the content and local knowledge of AirAsia, the new joint venture would serve consumers in the region like never before.

“In addition to the fact that you want travel to be efficient and cost efficient, there’s also the romance of travel and the passion behind AirAsia to serve their customers better,” he said.

“Their depth of knowledge and their understanding of how their customers travel and how they want to travel, powered by technology, will develop this into a vibrant enterprise. Because of the way it’s been set up and the feelings we have for each other, I have no doubt this will be a successful venture,” said Diller.

And later, as both men pressed the button to consummate their union, a shower of confetti fell over our heads – I didn’t see though who caught the bridal bouquet. But I am guessing it’s Kathleen Tan, AirAsia’s group head of commercial, who will be driving the joint venture hard with her new “husband”, Scott Durchslag, president of Expedia Worldwide, who will oversee the new joint venture.