Post by Banjo on Jun 6, 2012 12:16:57 GMT 7
Singapore's new budget airline touches down in Sydney
Challenging rival budget airlines Jetstar and AirAsia, Singapore Airlines' new low-cost offshoot, Scoot, took to the skies for its maiden flight this morning, with 400 passengers touching down at Sydney Airport.
The incoming flight from Singapore arrived after a one-hour delay due to a medical emergency, with passengers waiting at the check-in gates surrounded by bright yellow balloons and flags, and traditional Singaporean dancers and musicians.
The low-cost airline will fly to Singapore daily from Sydney with sale fares starting from about $179 one-way. From next week, Scoot will add five flights a week from the Gold Coast to Singapore on its Boeing 777 aircraft fitted with premium and economy cabins.
In addition to Singapore, it will operate to a number of Asian cities starting with Bangkok, and Tianjin in China. Scoot also announced this morning its plan to fly to two more destinations in Asia, Tokyo and Taipei.
At the airport this morning, Scoot CEO Campbell Wilson said, “This is been a momentous day for us, and its been a long time coming – a year in the making and it's something that we're very, very excited about.”
Wilso said the rapid growth of the low-cost airline market in Asia was behind the launch of the new budget carrier.
"The low-cost market (has) gone from nothing to 26 per cent of Changi airport in less than a decade … so they wanted to tap into that market,” he said
The airline will start with two planes, will add a third in July and a fourth in September.
“By the middle of the decade we aim to have about 14 aircraft, which allows us to have at least 12 to 15 destinations,” said Wilson.
What does this airline mean for Singapore? Said Kenneth Lim, regional director of Singapore Tourism, "Because the business model is low-cost and long haul, it means more Australians can visit Singapore. It also means that people can spend less on the flight, and more at the destination.”
“Because it's a direct flight, it makes Singapore not so much a stopover anymore - whoever takes this flight wants to go and see only Singapore.”
The entry of Scoot marks a new shot in the ongoing airfare war for Australians travelling from Sydney to Asia. Rival low-cost Malaysian airline, AirAsia X, began flights between Sydney and Kuala Lumpur in April after years of being denied access to the route.
Read more: www.theage.com.au/travel/singapores-new-budget-airline-touches-down-in-sydney-20120605-1zt9a.html#ixzz1wzGXNJ7J
Passengers spoilt for choice as competition expands
YOU'VE almost never had it so good in the skies. The strong competition between budget airlines promises to continue to deliver a bonanza of cheap fares for travellers.
Jetting into Sydney on Monday, AirAsia X's debut flight to Sydney from Malaysia came with the promise of cut-price, one-way flights of $99 and access to major cities in south-east Asia.
The launch of flights by its long-haul affiliate, AirAsia X, between Sydney and Kuala Lumpur puts Australia's largest city at the centre of a fare war between low-cost carriers. Singapore Airline's el-cheapo offshoot, Scoot, will begin flying between Sydney and Singapore in June, and shortly afterwards to the Gold Coast. Its promotional launch fares were just $88 for one-way flights.
In the domestic market, ''real best discount'' fares in March were about 29 percentage points less in real terms than they were in 2003 - the baseline for government aviation statistics.
Despite edging higher since the middle of last year, after Tiger Airways' forced grounding lessened the pressure on its rivals, the ticket prices offered by low-cost airlines are near historical lows.
However, the biggest change in domestic fares over the last four months has been in business class.
Virgin Australia's fight for lucrative corporate passengers - a market Qantas has held a grip over since Ansett's collapse in 2001 - has resulted in business fares dropping by about a quarter since November.
Despite the recent rise in budget fares, the rebuilding of Tiger - whose deep-pocketed parents in Singapore have ripped up its old model to focus on improving service - will again put pressure on Jetstar and, to a lesser extent, Virgin.
Virgin does tread a difficult line in reshaping itself as an upmarket competitor to Qantas while promising not to walk away from its core leisure customers.
Despite speculation last year it would pull out of Australia, Tiger has demonstrated it is here for at least the medium term after choosing Sydney as its second aircraft base and began focusing on the major routes as the air-safety regulator slowly relaxes its restrictions.
Before its forced grounding, Tiger had earned a reputation for cancellations and flights departing late or not arriving on time. But its decision to base a spare A320 aircraft in Australia later this year will help ensure it is not caught short when operations become stretched.
Andrew David, the new chief executive of Tiger's Australian operations, says he is focused on giving passengers better choice through increased frequencies on routes out of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. ''When we're going to go in to a market, we've got to go in seriously and we have to be in there at least for the medium-term,'' says David, a former executive at Virgin and Air New Zealand. ''We can't do what we were doing before, which was [jump] in and out of markets.''
After incurring substantial losses due to the grounding, David says the biggest step to Tiger turning a profit is to return all 10 of its planes to service by September. ''With our cost base, we have a fighting chance of making a profit and it being a sustainable profit,'' he says.
''[Tiger's Singaporean investors] are not prepared to sit here and incur the losses … but there is a belief that there is an opportunity and niche in this market for our product.''
Read more: www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/passengers-spoilt-for-choice-as-competition-expands-20120406-1wgou.html#ixzz1wzGpyCw5
Challenging rival budget airlines Jetstar and AirAsia, Singapore Airlines' new low-cost offshoot, Scoot, took to the skies for its maiden flight this morning, with 400 passengers touching down at Sydney Airport.
The incoming flight from Singapore arrived after a one-hour delay due to a medical emergency, with passengers waiting at the check-in gates surrounded by bright yellow balloons and flags, and traditional Singaporean dancers and musicians.
The low-cost airline will fly to Singapore daily from Sydney with sale fares starting from about $179 one-way. From next week, Scoot will add five flights a week from the Gold Coast to Singapore on its Boeing 777 aircraft fitted with premium and economy cabins.
In addition to Singapore, it will operate to a number of Asian cities starting with Bangkok, and Tianjin in China. Scoot also announced this morning its plan to fly to two more destinations in Asia, Tokyo and Taipei.
At the airport this morning, Scoot CEO Campbell Wilson said, “This is been a momentous day for us, and its been a long time coming – a year in the making and it's something that we're very, very excited about.”
Wilso said the rapid growth of the low-cost airline market in Asia was behind the launch of the new budget carrier.
"The low-cost market (has) gone from nothing to 26 per cent of Changi airport in less than a decade … so they wanted to tap into that market,” he said
The airline will start with two planes, will add a third in July and a fourth in September.
“By the middle of the decade we aim to have about 14 aircraft, which allows us to have at least 12 to 15 destinations,” said Wilson.
What does this airline mean for Singapore? Said Kenneth Lim, regional director of Singapore Tourism, "Because the business model is low-cost and long haul, it means more Australians can visit Singapore. It also means that people can spend less on the flight, and more at the destination.”
“Because it's a direct flight, it makes Singapore not so much a stopover anymore - whoever takes this flight wants to go and see only Singapore.”
The entry of Scoot marks a new shot in the ongoing airfare war for Australians travelling from Sydney to Asia. Rival low-cost Malaysian airline, AirAsia X, began flights between Sydney and Kuala Lumpur in April after years of being denied access to the route.
Read more: www.theage.com.au/travel/singapores-new-budget-airline-touches-down-in-sydney-20120605-1zt9a.html#ixzz1wzGXNJ7J
Passengers spoilt for choice as competition expands
YOU'VE almost never had it so good in the skies. The strong competition between budget airlines promises to continue to deliver a bonanza of cheap fares for travellers.
Jetting into Sydney on Monday, AirAsia X's debut flight to Sydney from Malaysia came with the promise of cut-price, one-way flights of $99 and access to major cities in south-east Asia.
The launch of flights by its long-haul affiliate, AirAsia X, between Sydney and Kuala Lumpur puts Australia's largest city at the centre of a fare war between low-cost carriers. Singapore Airline's el-cheapo offshoot, Scoot, will begin flying between Sydney and Singapore in June, and shortly afterwards to the Gold Coast. Its promotional launch fares were just $88 for one-way flights.
In the domestic market, ''real best discount'' fares in March were about 29 percentage points less in real terms than they were in 2003 - the baseline for government aviation statistics.
Despite edging higher since the middle of last year, after Tiger Airways' forced grounding lessened the pressure on its rivals, the ticket prices offered by low-cost airlines are near historical lows.
However, the biggest change in domestic fares over the last four months has been in business class.
Virgin Australia's fight for lucrative corporate passengers - a market Qantas has held a grip over since Ansett's collapse in 2001 - has resulted in business fares dropping by about a quarter since November.
Despite the recent rise in budget fares, the rebuilding of Tiger - whose deep-pocketed parents in Singapore have ripped up its old model to focus on improving service - will again put pressure on Jetstar and, to a lesser extent, Virgin.
Virgin does tread a difficult line in reshaping itself as an upmarket competitor to Qantas while promising not to walk away from its core leisure customers.
Despite speculation last year it would pull out of Australia, Tiger has demonstrated it is here for at least the medium term after choosing Sydney as its second aircraft base and began focusing on the major routes as the air-safety regulator slowly relaxes its restrictions.
Before its forced grounding, Tiger had earned a reputation for cancellations and flights departing late or not arriving on time. But its decision to base a spare A320 aircraft in Australia later this year will help ensure it is not caught short when operations become stretched.
Andrew David, the new chief executive of Tiger's Australian operations, says he is focused on giving passengers better choice through increased frequencies on routes out of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. ''When we're going to go in to a market, we've got to go in seriously and we have to be in there at least for the medium-term,'' says David, a former executive at Virgin and Air New Zealand. ''We can't do what we were doing before, which was [jump] in and out of markets.''
After incurring substantial losses due to the grounding, David says the biggest step to Tiger turning a profit is to return all 10 of its planes to service by September. ''With our cost base, we have a fighting chance of making a profit and it being a sustainable profit,'' he says.
''[Tiger's Singaporean investors] are not prepared to sit here and incur the losses … but there is a belief that there is an opportunity and niche in this market for our product.''
Read more: www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/passengers-spoilt-for-choice-as-competition-expands-20120406-1wgou.html#ixzz1wzGpyCw5
