Airasiax and Tigerairways push into Australia.

[onelilley 6]

Recently in Australia we have had many good announcements from different airlines.

 

Firstly Emirates announced they intent to push for direct flights from Melbourne and more from Sydney.

 

Qatar wants the rights to fly out of Sydney and Melboune daily.

 

Virgin Atlantic are pushing strongly for a deal which will see flights to Europe via Asia out of Melbourne on the back of more orders for Aircraft.

 

This week Tigerairways announced Melbourne as their new base in Australia, they will fly domestically in Australia and expand their network to Asia.

 

Tiger Airways Australia has confirmed that it will establish its headquarters in Melbourne, at the city’s main domestic and international gateway, Tullamarine Airport.

 

Tiger Airways President and Chief Executive Officer, Tony Davis said, “We went through a thorough and detailed selection process and chose Melbourne, as it presented the best opportunity for the successful launch of Australia’s first truly “Low Fare” Airline.”

 

“Together with its comprehensive skills base and long aviation heritage, the flexibility offered by Melbourne Airport, Victoria State and the City of Melbourne demonstrated a deep understanding of Tiger’s low fare model. The State, aviation & tourism industries, together with the wider community, rallied together to make Melbourne a compelling choice,” Davis said.

 

The selection of the base is an important step in establishing a new airline operation in Australia. Providing over 1000 job opportunities the airline has already commenced the tendering maintenance, ground handling, training and catering contracts.

 

“The Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) process is on track and we are now talking to a variety of cities about destination opportunities so that we can start planning our route network .We’ve also started talking to a number of cities about the opportunities for locating a second base in Australia.”

 

The initial year of operations in Australia will see Tiger basing 5 brand new Airbus A320s with a single class configuration of 180 seats. Davis said that the airline expects to carry around two million passengers in its first year.

 

 

 

 

Airasiax announced this week their intention to fly very cheap fares to Asia from Australia.

 

AirAsiaX taps no-frills market with low fares

Steve Creedy, Aviation writer

April 23, 2007

 

ASIA's most aggressive low-cost carrier will today reveal details of a planned assault on Australia.

AirAsiaX is a long-haul sister carrier to successful Malaysian-based low-cost operator AirAsia, started five years ago by entreprenuer Tony Fernandes.

Due to begin flying long-haul routes from Kuala Lumpur in July, it has made news already, promoting air fares as low as RM9.99 ($3.50) to Britain.

 

Most of its fares are to be about 50 per cent cheaper than traditional airlines and it plans to offer daily point-to-point flights to popular destinations in China, India and Europe.

 

It plans also to fly to Australia, although it is not known when.

 

In the meantime, astute travellers from Perth and Darwin may be able to combine Singapore's Tiger Airways with AirAsiaX to reach Europe for less than $1000 in low season.

 

AirAsia X passengers will be able to buy meals, in-flight entertainment and drinks.

 

According to an executive familiar with the deal, AirAsiaX has selected Airbus over Boeing for 15 new passenger aircraft.

 

"Airbus came with a better commercial deal and delivery ... will be faster," he said.

 

Official confirmation is expected today.

 

Mr Fernandes has said he believes AirAsiaX will tap into a new market rather than compete with full-service carriers such as Qantas and Singapore Airlines.

 

But it is likely to prove a lively competitor for Qantas's Jetstar International.

 

 

 

 

This all goes well for much cheaper fares direct to Asia out of Australia, the only question would be could they all survive?

[Shuggy 8]

Bring em all on. The more of them coming this way the cheaper for us. There is also going to be an Indian carrier flying to Melbourne in the next few months. Possible via Bangkok but that has still to be confirmed.

[Eneukman 1]

I flew with Air Asia last month and they were OK. The flight from KL to Langawi was delayed but I was offered a transfer to an earlier flight, which was also delayed. The end result was that I got to the resort at more or less the same time as I would have had my flight been on time.

 

I don't know why this happens but I noticed last year as well that almost all Air Asia flights between KL and Langawi were late. The flight I was transferred to was no more than half full so they're not being delayed by passengers.

 

The other flights were on time and again, not particularly busy.

 

I'm flying with them to Singapore later this month.

 

Air Asia has a baggage allowance of 15kg and I wonder whether their long haul carrier will allow you a bit extra? Also, no free food or drinks on Air Asia, though unlike esayJet etc, their charges for soft drinks wasn't really excessive.

 

Alan

Edited May 16, 2007 by Eneukman

[spacebass 0]

I flew with Air Asia last month and they were OK. The flight from KL to Langawi was delayed but I was offered a transfer to an earlier flight, which was also delayed. The end result was that I got to the resort at more or less the same time as I would have had my flight been on time.

 

I don't know why this happens but I noticed last year as well that almost all Air Asia flights between KL and Langawi were late. The flight I was transferred to was no more than half full so they're not being delayed by passengers.

 

The other flights were on time and again, not particularly busy.

 

I'm flying with them to Singapore later this month.

 

Air Asia has a baggage allowance of 15kg and I wonder whether their long haul carrier will allow you a bit extra? Also, no free food or drinks on Air Asia, though unlike esayJet etc, their charges for soft drinks wasn't really excessive.

 

Alan

 

 

With air asia you have to make a distinction between 'late' and 'cancelled' which they do not do, air asia consolidate flights, if one is a bit empty they cancel it and put the passengers on the next one (or so!) or in your case the earlier one. This contention is supported by your observation that the flight you went on was half empty.

 

If you roll up and they have cancelled one or two flights on your route they will not tell you they have cancelled them they will say they are 'late'. They may also offer some lie about why they are late such as 'the King used the airport this morning and it has disrupted services'.

 

All this is the reason you must never rely on Air Asia if a connection is involved.

 

However pretty good once you get on the plane!

Edited May 17, 2007 by spacebass

[Eneukman 1]

With air asia you have to make a distinction between 'late' and 'cancelled' which they do not do, air asia consolidate flights, if one is a bit empty they cancel it and put the passengers on the next one (or so!) or in your case the earlier one. This contention is supported by your observation that the flight you went on was half empty.

 

If you roll up and they have cancelled one or two flights on your route they will not tell you they have cancelled them they will say they are 'late'. They may also offer some lie about why they are late such as 'the King used the airport this morning and it has disrupted services'.

 

All this is the reason you must never rely on Air Asia if a connection is involved.

 

However pretty good once you get on the plane!

 

I understand the point you're making. Laker Airways did that back in the 80's. My flight from Gatwick flew first to Manchester where they picked up some passengers before flying on to Miami. On the way back, my flight was cancelled and I was put on to a later flight. No reason was given but you don't need a particularly high IQ to work out that there there were insufficient passengers to fill one plane never mind two.

 

With Air Asia, the check in for my flight did actually open and that was when I was transferred on to the earlier flight. I suspect that two later flights may very well have been comsolidated though.

 

Alan

[Gonzo 419]

Last Monday was my third flight with Tigerairways from Darwin to Bangkok. It cost me A$ 256 (including taxes) for a one-way ticket. There was a six hour stop-over at the Budget terminal in Singapore. Not much of a problem as it gave me enough time to have a nice breakfast and lunch before the short flight up to Bangkok.

 

I caught the Bell bus at Level 1 (on the far left) at Suvarnabhumi. It was pleasant ride on the near empty bus (150 Baht). At Pattaya Nua bus station they immediately transfered me into one of their shuttle buses and drove me to my condo in Jomtien. They had a promotion on and there was no extra charge for the shuttle bus.