Thai Airways, Tiger to launch joint low-cost carrier

[lonelywombat]

Thai Airways, Tiger to launch joint low-cost carrier
August 2, 2010 - 4:23PM AEDT
Flag carrier Thai Airways and Singapore's Tiger Airways confirmed today they plan to form a new low-fare airline.

The "Thai Tiger Airways" joint venture will be 51 per cent owned by Thai Airways and a Thai entity and 49 per cent owned by Tiger, the two airlines said in an announcement to the Singapore exchange.

The new carrier will be based in Bangkok and is expected to start operations in the first quarter of 2011. It will offer domestic and international services within a five-hour flying radius, the airlines said.

Thai Airways is 51 per cent-owned by the Thai government. Tiger is 49 percent-owned by Singapore Airlines and part-owned by Singapore state investor Temasek .

Reuters

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[Beachlover]

Sweet... more competition means even lower fares, more availability and more routes.

So now we'll have AirAsia and Tiger doing international LCC out of Bangkok.

On a 12hour flight ( or 2 x 7hrs) I don't want low-cost - I can imagine what it would be like in terms of comfort.

How much lower can it get anyway when (with a bit of planning) you can get full service LHR-BKK for under ┬г500?

I want Business Class for the cost of Economy.

First Class for business class price would be equally attractive.

:occasion9:

Of course I realise that money is no object to all the old queens on here (or so they would have us believe), so please spare us the customary boasting of your limitless wealth in response.

[Smiles]

I thought Thai Airways already had a low cost carrier: i.e. NOK Air?
Perhaps (he thought) it had gone belly up while he wasn't looking? Nope, still on the WWW accepting bookings. Perhaps (he said to himself) Thai sold it while he was on the toilet? Anyone know? Perhaps Thai thought (he thought) two lousy money-losers better than one? Ahhhh, that must be it: TiT!!!

I thought Thai Airways already had a low cost carrier: i.e. NOK Air?
Perhaps (he thought) it had gone belly up while he wasn't looking? Nope, still on the WWW accepting bookings. Perhaps (he said to himself) Thai sold it while he was on the toilet? Anyone know? Perhaps Thai thought (he thought) two lousy money-losers better than one? Ahhhh, that must be it: TiT!!!

As far as I know NOK does internal flights only, and using old aircraft only fit for that purpose.

As far as I know, NOK Air only does domestic routes. From what I can piece together from different reports of this new venture, Thai Tiger is really aiming for regional routes ex-Bangkok, within a five-hour radius. This may include connections to all its Asean neighbours, China and India.

There is some sense to this. With European and American tourists watching their wallets, if Thailand's tourism industry is to recover, Thailand really needs to draw traffic from emerging Asian economies, so if Thai Tiger is aggressive enough in launching new routes to China, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, this will certainly help. Budget fares are what these emerging tourists need.

Lord knows, the gay scene in Bangkok and Pattaya need this boost too. As I have said before, for the scene to have any real future, it needs lots more Asian tourists.

[Smiles]

NOK already has the planes, and B737's can easily travel 5 hours**. Wouldn't it be common sense to simply change NOK's mandate (i.e. from purely domestic to some international), and get some extra equity pumped in from Tiger Air.
I would think that would help the economics of the situation at start up.
Though if NOK's planes are half shot already, perhaps not :blackeye:
Just musing ...


"" (Change that to "close" to 5 hours. Just checked. Oh well, TiT ... 'close' is good enough :bounce: )

[DCbob]

On a 12hour flight ( or 2 x 7hrs) I don't want low-cost - I can imagine what it would be like in terms of comfort.

Please re-read, it clearly states 5 hour radius, and you criteria does not meet that.

Don't get your knickers in a twist dear - I was talking about LCC generally

Take a chill-pill.

:occasion9:

[DCbob]

Don't get your knickers in a twist dear:

My knickers are not in a twist, but I say what I mean and not leave it up to an interpretation as to what I said.