Tiger Airways' Ziele stehen fest

[vincent]

Tiger Airways prepares for fierce fare battle

Its average ticket price to be 40% below market's lowest average. FLYING to Bangkok, Phuket, Hatyai and at least 15 more destinations for as little as a dollar is no flight of fancy.

 

 

These could be the lowest fares that Singapore's newest budget carrier, Tiger Airways, may offer on a graduated scale when it launches its inaugural flights to these destinations next month.

 

The low cost carrier, which is 49 per cent owned by Singapore Airlines got its Air Operators Certificate (AOC) yesterday morning and promptly announced plans to fly to as many as 10 regional destinations by year-end, and 15 by the end of 2005.

 

But it will start with three daily flights to Bangkok, and once-a-day flights to Hatyai and Phuket. Flights to other destinations such as Ho Chih Minh City in Vietnam, and Jakarta and Medan in Indonesia could follow by year-end.

 

Its Singapore-Bangkok service will put it in head-on competition with Valuair and Thai AirAsia.

 

But Tiger Airway's chief executive Patrick Gan said he was ready to take on the competition. 'As far as Tiger is concerned, we are ready for any price war if it breaks out,' he said. 'We have our own business plan contingencies built in place, and we are confident we will be successful at the end of the day.'

 

Mr Gan said the airline would price its tickets at a graduated scale, with the average price being 'at least 40 per cent below the lowest average price' available in the market.

 

A Valuair return ticket to Bangkok costs $199, while AirAsia's Singapore-Bangkok ticket prices average about $80 each way. However, the 'big boys' like Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines have also been getting into the act, offering 'special fares' from as low as $150.

 

Mr Gan said that the airline planned to fly around 200,000 passengers by the end of this year: 'We anticipate (traffic) growth to be 25 to 35 per cent in each of the next five years.'

 

But while flights to Thailand are easy enough to plan - Singapore and Thailand inked a free skies agreement - it may take a bit longer to get the flight rights to the other destinations within the four-hour flight radius targeted by the airline.

 

Tiger Airways will take delivery of two more leased 180-seater A320 aircraft by year-end, bringing its fleet size to four. It will then lease four more aircraft next year and another four in 2006.

 

About four-fifths of its tickets will be sold via the Internet, with the rest via the Post Office, AXS stations and call centres.

 

Mr Gan declined to be drawn into discussions on how the rising cost of fuel could impact on Tiger Airways, but said it would not follow SIA and Silkair in imposing fuel surcharges. 'We have no issues with the way oil prices are rising. We will manage,' he said. 'We have to be extremely careful and focussed on our cost.'

 

Its low cost competitor Valuair introduced a $5 surcharge per flight last month to offset part of the higher costs.

 

Besides Thai AirAsia and Valuair, Tiger may soon face competition from a Singapore-based unit of AirAsia, which applied for an AOC earlier this year.

 

Then there are other regional competitors like Indonesia's Lion Air and Thai Airway's budget unit Nok Air.

 

Tiger Airways' other shareholders are Indigo Partners LLC (24 per cent), Irelandia (16 per cent) and Temasek Holdings (11 per cent). Irelandia is the private investment arm of Ryanair founder Tony Ryan.

[Gast sgnrn.tk]

What is the homebase of tiger airlines??

 

RK

[vincent]

Singapore Changi

[vincent]

die Homepage http://www.tigerairways.com ist jetzt neu gestaltet und man kann tickets buchen.

Wenn man sich den Flugplan anschaut erkennt man das sie noch jede menge luft haben um zu expandieren

 

[ Diese Nachricht wurde geändert von: vincent am 2004-09-03 16:40 ]