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attitudetravel
Joined: 15 Nov 2007
Posts: 242
Location: London, UK
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 Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 6:55 am Post subject: Singapore: 5th Asia Pacific Low Cost Airlines Congress 2008 |
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I have invited Wendy Mah, the organiser of the 5th Asia Pacific Low Cost Airlines Congress 2008, to say a few words here about what promises to be the biggest and best Asian Low Cost Aviation industry event yet:
| Quote: | LCC CEOs topbill Asia Pacific Low Cost Airline Congress 2008 to shed light on maximising low cost opportunites & uptapped aviation markets
CEOs from the Asia Pacific’s leading low cost carriers and emerging new LCC players are headlining the 5th annual Asia Pacific Low Cost Airline Congress to share their market strategies for 2008 and beyond. As the region continues to display increased demand for air travel, airlines are stepping in to ensure that they grow their market shares for the air passenger market. At the Congress to be held in Singapore from the 22nd – 24th January 2008, Tony Davis, CEO, Tiger Airways, Alan Joyce, CEO, Jetstar, Brett Godfrey, CEO, Virgin Blue, Phit Lian Chong, CEO, Jetstar Asia, Azran Osman-Rani, CEO, AirAsia X, Patrick Weil, CEO, Kiwijet, Con Korfiatis, CEO, Viva Macau, Marwan Boodai, CEO, Jazeera Airways, Garry Kingshott, CEO, JetLite, Lim Kim Hai, CEO, Regional Express, Luong Hoai Nam, CEO, Pacific Airlines, Patee Sarasin, CEO, Nok Air, Warwick Brady, CEO, Mandala Airlines and many more airline CEOs will be giving their insights on what lies ahead for low cost carriers in the region’s friendly skies.
Of special note are the new aviation markets LCCs are casting their nets on – such as the low cost, long haul market segment that LCCs such as AirAsia X are betting on, or Vietnam as a hot new aviation market to target with Pacific Airlines, and AirAsia involved in the scene. North Asia is also a prime market opportunity for Tiger Airways with Air Korea trying to vie also for a slice of the low cost air travel segment.
Not only are airlines gearing up for the explosive market opportunities in low cost air travel, but airports are ramping up their business models as well to successfully partner with airlines to maximise capacity for low cost air passengers. Singapore’s Budget Terminal, Malaysia’s LCCT, and a slew of airports in Australia all the way to India are setting up low cost airline operations in their airports to effectively support their LCC clients.
All these exciting developments in the region’s aviation market are going to be covered at the Asia Pacific Low Cost Airline Congress 2008, and the high-fliers of the industry will be recognized at the Budgie$ Best in Class Awards as well on the 22nd of January at the Awards Party. For more information, visit www.lowcostairlinesworld.com/sg. |
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Alan Lansdowne
Editor, attitudetravel.com
Last edited by attitudetravel on Fri Dec 21, 2007 7:57 am; edited 2 times in total |
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attitudetravel
Joined: 15 Nov 2007
Posts: 242
Location: London, UK
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| Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 7:43 am Post subject: |
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The Asia Pacific Low Cost Airlines Congress is the premier forum for Asian, Middle Eastern and Australasian low cost airlines to announce their plans for new routes, new destinations and new future projects.
I was originally invited to cover the event by Wendy's predecessor, Adeline Lim, in January 2006. At that time I had a chance to witness the finishing touches being put together at Singapore's then unopened Budget Terminal. At the same event StarFlyer explained the strategy it planned to follow in order to become Japan's first low cost airline, JetStar revealed its plans to start-up a mid-haul low cost airline (JetStar International) and Andrew Pyne made his first announcement about the future Viva Macau's intended destinations from Macau.
In January 2007, attitude Travel was invited to become one of the event's several media partners. I flew into Singapore expecting only lots of excited buzz about the newly announced Air Asia X but then found myself speaking to Air South Asia about the progress it was making in its plans to launch Sri Lanka's first LCC, listening to Tiger Airways explain its intention to set up a new major hub outside Singapore before the end of 2007, hearing JetStar deliver some hyperbole on how it was going to conquer Tiger Airways in Asia and watching the rumours fly backwards and forwards on new LCC startups based out of South Korea to be launched over the next three years.
In January 2008, I am looking forward to hearing a lot more about the low cost long haul route network Air Asia X will be introducing during 2008 and also to interview the heads of the other new airlines bidding to make their names as pioneers in the long haul low cost arena: Kang Pacific Airlines and Air Sylhet.
One thing I'm particularly keen to get confirmation on is whether Virgin Blue in Australia really intends to go ahead with its project for an ultra-low-cost subsidiary to compete against Tiger Airways.
I'd also like to confirm where Oasis will be flying next, after London and Vancouver, how soon Air India Express will commence flights to Malaysia and what FireFly plans to do in 2008 in order to stay alive in the shadow of Air Asia.
As ever, there are sure to be a few surprise announcements too.
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Alan Lansdowne
Editor, attitudetravel.com
Last edited by attitudetravel on Fri Dec 21, 2007 9:59 am; edited 1 time in total |
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attitudetravel
Joined: 15 Nov 2007
Posts: 242
Location: London, UK
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| Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 7:49 am Post subject: |
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What I'd really like to hear from anyone reading this - whether your interest is in China, Thailand, India or Australia or anywhere else in the Middle East - Asia - Australasia region - is whether you have heard any rumours about new airlines and / or destinations which you would like to have confirmed, or if you have any questions on forthcoming new routes which you would like to have put to the airline executives.
If you can add your comments, questions, wishlists etc. below, I will take the list with me to Singapore and endeavour to wring as much information out of the CEOs as I can.
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Alan Lansdowne
Editor, attitudetravel.com |
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onebir
Joined: 17 Nov 2007
Posts: 48
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| Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2007 10:03 am Post subject: |
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| attitudetravel wrote: | | What I'd really like to hear from anyone reading this - whether your interest is in China, Thailand, India or Australia or anywhere else in the Middle East - Asia - Australasia region - is whether you have heard any rumours about new airlines and / or destinations which you would like to have confirmed. |
I'm wondering when/whether Air Asia's going to start flying to SW China. They've mentioned Kunming (population 5.7m), Chengdu (pop 3.9m) and Chongqing (pop 31m - that's not a misprint). All of SW China currently has very poor/overpriced direct travel connections with SE Asia - overland routes included, for the moment - despite the two regions' relative proximity.
I'd like you to use these precise words: "Datuk Fernandes, the impact of your company on the cost and ease of travel in SE Asia is widely appreciated by travellers. But when are you going to shift your fat arse and start flying into SW China, where there's a huge underserved population, including a burgeoning middle class who'd love to get out of the sorry place for hols because everything in China is so bloody Chinese, & the only competition is a sorry bunch of legacy carriers?"  |
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attitudetravel
Joined: 15 Nov 2007
Posts: 242
Location: London, UK
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| Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 1:01 pm Post subject: |
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I'll see what I can do. 
You're absolutely right that almost all the southeast Asian LCC's low cost route development to and from China between 2005 and now - not only Air Asia but also Tiger Airways and Cebu Pacific - has been concerned with connecting Southeast Asian countries to cities down China's Eastern seaboard and the west of the country has been somewhat left behind. But I suppose that was inevitable to some degree - at least in the initial stages of low cost route network expansion.
Regarding the Eastern seaboard, I will try and get some definite answers about when Macau Asia Express is planning to launch and where it is planning to fly to while I am at the conference too.
Does anyone else have any other questions?
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Alan Lansdowne
Editor, attitudetravel.com
Last edited by attitudetravel on Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:00 am; edited 1 time in total |
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uksing
Joined: 29 Dec 2007
Posts: 3
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| Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 7:08 pm Post subject: Questions for the conference |
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Hi Alan
Can you help me with these questions.
1) For Tiger Airways, will they be interested to fly long haul to europe as AirAsia X is targeting for Aug 2008 and Jetstar Feb 2009?
2) For AirAsia X, did they know that they can't fly into Europe by July 2007 before they annouce on 7th January 2007?
3) For Oasis Hong Kong, will they be interested to fly into Australia, with a Singapore stopover?
Regards
uksing |
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onebir
Joined: 17 Nov 2007
Posts: 48
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| Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 1:24 am Post subject: |
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| attitudetravel wrote: | You're absolutely right that almost all the southeast Asian LCC's low cost route development to and from China between 2005 and now - not onlyAir Asia but also Tiger Airways and Cebu Pacific - has been concerned with connecting Southeast Asian countries to cities down China's Eastern seaboard and the west of the country has been somewhat left behind. But I suppose that was inevitable to some degree - at least in the initial stages of low cost route network expansion.
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Sure - but it's not even the whole eastern seaboard, it's for Air Asia it's pretty much one tiny area - Guangzhou, Macau, Shenzhen & HK are not very far apart, & have pretty good (to excellent, in the case of Macau-HK) transfers.
I'm sure they're getting good load factors on these routes. But the proximity of those airports must mean they're cannibalising their own potential passengers, to some extent: given their large price differentials with existing carriers and the relative ease of transfers. And AAs plans for flights into inland China were announced in May 05. Delays like that aren't great for their credibility. |
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attitudetravel
Joined: 15 Nov 2007
Posts: 242
Location: London, UK
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| Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:22 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | But the proximity of those airports must mean they're cannibalising their own potential passengers, to some extent [...] And AAs plans for flights into inland China were announced in May 05. Delays like that aren't great for their credibility. |
Both excellent points.
I doubt that Tony Fernandes will be at the event in person this year - he isn't down as a speaker and he was too busy to come to Singapore in either 2006 or 2007 - but I will pin down some Air Asia executives and grill them on how long it's going to take them before they recall their original pioneering spirit, get their act together and begin opening up low cost routes to China's hinterland.
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Alan Lansdowne
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attitudetravel
Joined: 15 Nov 2007
Posts: 242
Location: London, UK
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| Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:50 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for your questions, uksing.
(And delighted to see you here!  It's good to see all the familiar faces flocking back, and I appreciate all of you putting up with the temporary inconvenience of having to re-register. When this transition period is complete, we will have a fully operational forum using the same software this Temporary Cafe is using - which I hope you agree is better than what we were working with before - but with a full index of all the posts made on the original Aimoo forum from 2003 until the end of 2006).
| Quote: | | 1) For Tiger Airways, will they be interested to fly long haul to europe as AirAsia X is targeting for Aug 2008 and Jetstar Feb 2009? |
And as Oasis started doing at the end of 2006!
Yes, this is a good question - I will ask it both of Tiger Airways directly, since Tony Davis will be speaking at the conference - (though I suspect Tiger probably has its claws full, expanding across Asia from Singapore, the Philippines and South Korea as well as establishing itself in Australasia) and of Singapore Airlines which owns 49% of Tiger. It may be that Singapore Airlines has an as-yet-unannounced plan to launch a low cost long haul carrier to compete against Air Asia X and Oasis, but wants to give it a different brand identity from the short-haul, lowest cost, bottom-of-the-barrel, Ryanair-style Tiger Airways.
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Alan Lansdowne
Editor, attitudetravel.com
Last edited by attitudetravel on Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:19 am; edited 1 time in total |
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attitudetravel
Joined: 15 Nov 2007
Posts: 242
Location: London, UK
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| Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 7:52 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | 2) For AirAsia X, did they know that they can't fly into Europe by July 2007 before they annouce on 7th January 2007? |
I'll pick them up on this and see what feeble excuses they give.
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Alan Lansdowne
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attitudetravel
Joined: 15 Nov 2007
Posts: 242
Location: London, UK
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| Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:06 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | 3) For Oasis Hong Kong, will they be interested to fly into Australia, with a Singapore stopover? |
With Air Asia X about to massively undercut all kangaroo-route carriers, (British Airways, Emirates, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, QANTAS etc.) and leave them wondering where all their passengers went, I would think it's an absolute certainty that Oasis will start flying to Australia (probably not via Singapore though, I suspect).
Already, budget-conscious passengers are making their way from London to Sydney by flying on Oasis to Hong Kong, crossing the Pearl River Delta to Macau and then flying on Viva Macau Australia to Kingsford Smith. If Oasis were already flying to Australia it could take advantage of the passengers it is currently losing to Viva Macau Australia.
I will see if Oasis has any plans to compete with Jetstar Asia and commence flights from Hong Kong to Singapore.
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Alan Lansdowne
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attitudetravel
Joined: 15 Nov 2007
Posts: 242
Location: London, UK
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| Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 8:17 am Post subject: |
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By the way, if you look at this page on the Asia Pacific Low Cost Airlines Congress 2008 website:
Asia Pacific Low Cost Airlines Congress 2008 - Press and Media
and scroll down as far as the entry on attitude Travel, you'll see that in the last paragraph of the write-up, there's a big credit to the contributions all you guys make...
Any more questions from anyone? (I'm happy to make the list at least twice as long as it is already...)
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Alan Lansdowne
Editor, attitudetravel.com |
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Konangrit
Joined: 27 Nov 2007
Posts: 61
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| Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 5:45 am Post subject: |
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Hi Alan,
I have a few questions you may be able to find out the answers for:
Tiger Airways:
When they announced plans for Incheon Tiger Airways at the beginning of November they made this statement:
| Quote: | | With the buoyant economic growth in North Asia, the infrastructural heritage of the Incheon authorities and the strong track record of Tiger Aviation, travellers in Korea, China and Japan can look forward to enjoying affordable fuss-free, point to point travel in North Asia and beyond |
However, later that month;
| Quote: | Korea's new airlines must fly domestically for at least two years without any major accidents before they can fly overseas, according to new government rules, potentially delaying plans of Korean Air Lines Co.'s proposed budget airline on international routes.
The new carriers also need to fly more than 20,000 domestic flights and a year of chartered operations before they can receive the license for full overseas flights, the Ministry of Construction and Transportation said yesterday. The airlines should not be involved in accidents that result in deaths even during the chartered flights period, it said. |
Clearly it will be impossible for Incheon Tiger Airways to fly the international routes it had planned unless it first only serves domestic routes for two years or even longer if it hasn't completed 20,000 flights by then, and then a further year of just charter flights.
1) Has this rule put an end to Tiger's Korean plans?
2) If not, will Tiger be able to fly 20,000 domestic flights within two years of operation?
3) How will they operate only international charter flights for a year under an LCC business model? Will a token charter flight once a month for a year be sufficient to meet the new requirements?
4) Could they fly out of Macau to Incheon to link up their network as they used to do to Clark until the Philippine authorities forced them to hand over the route to Asian Spirit?
For Tiger's Australian Subsidiary:
5) Any plans for international routes such as new Zealand?
Jeju Air & Hansung Airlines:
Jeju have been flying domestic routes for over 2 years, and Hansung will have completed 2 years of domestic service later in 2008.
6) Do either of these two now have plans for international routes and if so what are those plans?
Japanese Airlines:
Air Do
Air Next
Ibex Airlines
JAL Express
Skymark Airlines
Skynet Asia Airways
7) Do any of these have any international plans?
Macau:
As you mentioned above, any info on Macau Asia Express would be nice.
Viva Macau:
8a) Why isn't it possible to book Australian flights through the main website?
8b) Why is Tokyo now only available to book as a charter, and no longer through the booking engine?
More of a moan than an actual question:
8c) Can they remove routes from their booking engine which are no longer available? For example, trying to book Busan results in "There are no flights available for your specifications" no matter which dates you try, it wastes customers time searching for a flight that doesn't exist.
Quite a lot there, so I'm not expecting answers for all, but if you can find the time to get a couple answered that would be great.
Thanks! |
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attitudetravel
Joined: 15 Nov 2007
Posts: 242
Location: London, UK
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| Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2008 4:12 am Post subject: |
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Hi everyone - excuse me for the prolonged absence. 
To cut a long story short, having survived nearly a month in India without any sort of stomach upset, I flew into Singapore in the early hours of January 20th, found I barely had the appetite to eat anything at all for the whole day. On Monday 21st I discovered that I couldn't swallow a mouthful of fried rice without having to run for the gents.
Ah well.
The good news is, I did make it to the conference and I did talk briefly to a few LCC CEOs and get a few quotes from some others. I didn't manage to get answers to all of your questions but I did for more than half (I think). These answers and any other information I picked up at the conference will follow shortly.
The bad news is I was way too ill to make it to the dinner reception on the first evening of the conference so I didn't get to do any tableside or barside chat with any airline execs (which is, of course, when the juiciest bits of information are always revealed). Also, despite actually feeling a bit steadier on my feet the next morning, I then missed half the afternoon of the second day of the conference because my face was a pale shade of green and my stomach was turning somersaults.
I remained in Singapore, feeling fairly unwell, until Monday 28th January and then flew to Manila Clark on Tiger to have a couple of days rest and recuperation in the Philippines. (My first visit - beautifully warm weather and stunning volcanic countryside!) Now I am in Macau which, by comparison with Manila, is damn cold, but - finally - but my bowel movements are almost normal and I am feeling well enough to sit up straight and get back to work.
I think I will handle your questions as follows:
For each of your questions I managed to get some sort of answer to I will start a new thread - so we can all discuss implications and ask follow-up questions. In this thread I will re-reference the questions above and link out from the references to the standalone threads - so the rest of this thread will be an index of answers to questions asked further up.
Thanks for bearing with me!
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Alan Lansdowne
Editor, attitudetravel.com |
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Konangrit
Joined: 27 Nov 2007
Posts: 61
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| Posted: Sat Feb 02, 2008 4:59 am Post subject: |
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Well, that was a shame that you couldn't enjoy your stay in Singapore as much as you'd have liked. Anyway, glad to hear you've nearly recovered now. I look forward to hearing what the CEOs had to say.
Who did you fly into Singapore with? |
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