By Hot on the trails of 2 of my most visited Posts, about Virgin New Guinea and Virgin Paradise, comes this article from the Sydney Morning Herald today about Singapore Airlines backed Tiger Airways announcing its plans on becoming Australia’s third domestic airline by late 2007.
Now that’s what I call competition!
Gathering from all the comments both from people within and outside the airline industry in PNG, it appears that it has to be commercially viable for any new airline to even bother coming into the PNG market. But if Tiger is based in Singapore than maybe we may have a chance of getting some scraps along the way as the Tiger pounces into Australia.
Air Nuigini already has 2 flights a week to Singapore, so maybe if Tiger can do it cheaper and more often as part of a stop over between Singapore and Australia, this may be some start to seeing a new airline in PNG’s airspace. Seeing is believing, so if we at least have one new entrant here then it could begin discussions for future services by either Tiger or Virgin or whoever to do more business in PNG.
Tiger is sharpening it’s claws alright and they already offer $8 for a one-way fare from Darwin to Singapore and is currently advertising S$21.50 ($18) one way fares from Perth to Singapore for the launch of this service next month.
Out of its homebase in Singapore, there is a joke around aviation circles that the airline at times can offer a ticket for the same price as a six pack of Tiger beer. The company has offered S$1 fares in the past.
Go Gettim Tiger!! Grrrrr!!!
A little about Tiger Airways
Established in December 2003, Tiger Airways took to the air on September 15, 2004 with the inauguration of service between Changi International Airport and Bangkok International Airport in Thailand. The airline now serves 16 cities around Asia with a fleet of nine new Airbus A320 aircraft with more new destinations to come.
Founding shareholders are: Singapore Airlines Limited (49%); Indigo Partners LLC, the investment firm founded by Bill Franke, (24%); Irelandia Investments Limited, the private investment arm of Tony Ryan and his family (owners of low cost Eurpean airline Ryanair, (16%); and Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd (Singapore Government) (11%).
Core Business Strategy
The low-cost carrier model is based on three customer-focused core strategies:
- market stimulation – creating opportunities for new travelers and empowering budget-conscious people to fly more often;
- stringent cost controls throughout our operations so that we can keep our fares low for travelers;
- capacity utilisation – maximising the number of sectors served per plane in a day with efficient air traffic planning
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Read also the posts on Virgin New Guinea and Virgin Paradise
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