Cheap flights 'to open up Far East market'

The impending availability of cheap flights to the Far East will open up the market for investors and tourists, it has been claimed.
According to Hetal Shah, director of Investors Provident, cheap flights from the UK to the Far East will impact on the local property market in much the same way as they did in Europe.
Mr Shah notes that budget airlines will be offering cheap flights to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in September or October of this year.
One of the airlines to offer this service will be AirAsia X, and Mr Shah believes the carrier is especially reminiscent of easyJet, one of the forerunners in the European low-cost flights sector.
"I think AirAsia X is like a similar concept to what easyJet is," he said.
"And what easyJet has done to the European sector, is what AirAsia X is trying to do for the Far Eastern sector.
"At the end of the day, they are very, very cheap flights. And that's definitely going to open up the market," he concluded.
24/09/07 Holiday Lettings, UK

Read More

Air India's low cost arm to be Delhi based

New Delhi: The low-cost arm of the newly merged Air India is being shifted from Mumbai to Delhi, while the headquarters of the overall airline and cargo operations would function from the western metropolis.
The overall responsibility of the low-cost carrier, Air India Express, would be that of Joint Managing Director Vishwapati Trivedi, with P P Singh being appointed its Chief Operating Officer. Both of them would be based in Delhi, official sources said.
As per the latest office order issued by CMD V Thulasidas, the Mumbai headquarters of Air India would handle the international and domestic operations as well as cargo.
The Special Business Unit for Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) is being split into two, with the facilities concerning airframes based in Mumbai and those relating to engines and components based in Delhi.
These decisions came days after the government constituted the board of National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL), the company born out of the merger of Indian and Air India.
20/09/07 PTI/Economic Times

Read More

Kochi airport plans JV to fuel low-cost flight plan

Mumbai: Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) is looking at forming a joint venture (JV) to kick off its much awaited low-cost carrier (LCC), Air Kerala.
A company official said CIAL has put aside its plan to fly to the Gulf and Middle East and plans to concentrate on domestic operations. The domestic operation would be launched with a partner since the company doesn’t have enough funds to go it alone, the official said, adding, it could be “an existing domestic airline who shows interest or preferably a new regional airline company.”
Three new regional airlines in the South— Air Dravida, Star Aviation and Emric Air - are gearing up to start operations, even as others like the Bird group and Megha Airways also plan to fly as regional airlines.
A regional airline is allowed to operate flights from its designated region to all airports in any other region other than the metros. However, regional airlines flying in the south would be allowed to connect the three metros including Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.
14/09/07 Shweta Bhanot/Daily News and Analysis

Read More

Tiger to create airline subsidiaries and joint ventures in India

According to Channel News Asia, Tiger Airways is restructuring its business in order to prepare itself for aggressive expansion in the Asia-Pacific.
Tiger is regrouping itself into a wholly owned budget carrier. This new structure will give the carrier added flexibility to create airline subsidiaries and joint ventures in markets such as China and India. In turn, these markets can purchase support services from the group. Tiger recently appointed Daniel Ee as its new independent chairman to oversee these efforts.
“The structure we've put in place today with Tiger Aviation as the group company - owning 100 percent of Tiger Singapore and 100 percent of Tiger Australia - really enables us to take the key attributes of the business, the brand, the distribution model, marketing efforts, our financial efforts and share those across the whole group structure,” Tony Davis, CEO of Tiger Airways said.
Tiger is expected to launch flights to Xiamen and cities in India and Australia later this year, while flights to Brunei are expected to begin in the first half of next year. The budget carrier is also expected to secure another base in Asia sometime in 2008. Altogether, Tiger expects to have 70 aircrafts in service by 2015.
12/09/07 eTravelBlackboard - Asia Edition, Australia

Read More

Jetstar eyes Indian destinations

Kuala Lumpur: Low-cost carrier Jetstar may use Malaysia as its Asian hub when it flies to south Europe in the near future following its inaugural flight to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport last Sunday.
Jetstar chief executive officer Alan Joyce said the carrier was now in talks with airport authorities in Europe, but a decision on its flights to that continent would not be made until the end of next year.
He said a particular constraint it was facing was the shortage of aircraft, which would be resolved by August next year when it took delivery of 15 Boeing 787 Dreamliners (B787-8) over a period of 15 months for its long-haul fleet.
Joyce said Jetstar was the fastest growing international carrier and it was also looking at new destinations such as Taiwan, Korea, India, China, southern Europe and North America.
Asked on Malaysian low-cost carrier Air Asia X’s upcoming flight to Australia, Joyce said the airlines were competing on different routes and different markets.
11/09/07 Sharon Tan/The Edge Daily, Malaysia

Read More

Low-cost airlines set to take off, says Airbus

Hong Kong: Asia's low-cost airlines are set for "explosive" growth and are likely to equal the market share of their counterparts in the US and Europe in two decades, according to Airbus.
Low-cost airlines have about 9 per cent of the Asian short-haul passenger traffic, compared with 31 per cent in North America and 26 per cent in Europe.
But Airbus chief commercial officer John Leahy, speaking at the Asian Aerospace show in Hong Kong, said: "The low-cost model is set to explode in terms of growth in Asia.
"I'm sure that all three markets will be at about 40 per cent in 20 years."
Concerning India and China, Peter Negline, Tiger's chief financial officer, said yesterday: "The growth potential there is simply astonishing over the coming two decades and we're looking to participate in that whole-heartedly."
______________________
Photo: Javed Parvesh, Senior Reporter,
Malayala Manorama, Kochi, India
______________________
While Asia will catch up with America and Europe, the "minor twist" is that Asian low-cost airlines will mostly rely on wide-body aircraft rather than the single-aisle type favoured in Europe for shorter distances, according to Mr Leahy.
In spite of plans by Beijing to restrict the launch of new airlines, Mr Leahy said airport infrastructure and other shortages would still force China and India to get more passengers on to fewer flights: "What you're going to see is a push towards larger aircraft in China and India as congestion hits."
05/09/07 Raphael Minder/The Australian, Australia

Read More