Qantas joins regional budget airline boom with Jetstar
Asia
SINGAPORE : Australian national carrier Qantas has announced that
its Asian budget venture, Jetstar Asia, will begin flying out of
Singapore in December with prices as low as any of its
rivals.
Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon said Jetstar Asia, a joint
operation with the Singapore's Temasek Holdings and two prominent
local businessmen, will fly to destinations within five hours from
the city-state.
Jetstar Asia, the sister airline of Jetstar Australia, will become
the fourth budget carrier to begin flying out of Singapore in just
seven months.
Signalling another round of ultra-cheap fares following Tiger
Airways's launch this month with Singapore-Bangkok flights for one
Singapore dollar (59 US cents), Dixon also promised heavy discounts
early on as a marketing tool.
"We will have promotional fares. We are going to be as competitive
as any of the low, low cost airlines," Dixon, who is Jetstar Asia's
chairman, told reporters at the branding launch.
Dixon said that, over the longer term, Jetstar Asia's tickets will
remain among the cheapest on the market.
"(Jetstar Asia will) have a cost base that will enable it to match
the fares of its competitors and we very confident we can do that,"
he said.
Dixon would not reveal further details about how much fares would
cost or what routes the airline would service, which he said were
still dependent on the outcomes of discussions with Singapore
authorities.
Although Singapore's Tiger Airways and Valuair, as well as
Malaysia's Air Asia, have got a head start in Singapore, Dixon
dismissed suggestions that Jetstar Asia would be disadvantaged by
starting last.
"I'm not sure its always the best thing in the airline industry to
be first off," he said.
"As a matter of fact I often think its best to wait to see how
everybody else destroys themselves and then you come in and maybe
pick up some of the pieces.
"I don't know where the other airlines will end up but I can assure
you that Jetstar Asia.. will be around in three or four years'
time."
Jetstar Asia will begin flights in December with two new 180-seat
Airbus A320s. It plans to double the fleet in the first four weeks
of operation, expand to eight aircraft in early 2005 and have 20 in
the air in three years.
Jetstar Asia chief operating officer Con Korfiatis said the airline
was in negotiations with Singapore's aviation authorities to
operate out of Changi Airport's planned low-budget terminal, the
first of its kind in Asia.
The terminal is due to be operational by early 2006.
Qantas has invested 50 million Singapore dollars for a 49.9 percent
stake in Jetstar Asia, with Temasek owning another 19
percent.
Singaporean business executives Tony Chew and F.F. Wong own 21.1
percent and 10 percent, respectively. The pair had previously been
involved with Myanmar Airways.
For Temasek, Jetstar Asia is the fourth Singapore-based Asian
airline it has a stake in, adding to its interests in Singapore
Airlines, Silk Air and Tiger Airways. Temasek also owns three
percent of Qantas.
Dixon rejected assertions from a reporter that Temasek may have a
conflict of interest in Singapore's aviation industry.
"It's not an issue. There are a lot of cross share holdings in
other companies," he said.
- AFP
Copyright © 2004 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved.
Courtesy channelnewsasia.com - Wednesday, 29th September 2004