Brendan Sobie: February 2007 Archives

Has Tiger Airways lost its mind?

Clearly that is what some industry insiders are thinking following Tiger's announcement that it plans to launch a domestic carrier in Australia around mid-year.

At first glance it seems there are already enough low-cost carriers in Australia given the size of Australia's domestic market and the country's small and isolated population. There seems to be far more potential in Asia, where Tiger is based, given the larger populations and the relatively small size of the domestic and regional markets.

But Australia is simply too easy of a market to access for Tiger to ignore. Any carrier from any nation can operate domestically in Australia regardless of where their owners reside. Australia's open door policy, initially introduced to encourage competition after Ansett collapsed six years ago, is completely the opposite of the policies Tiger has been unsuccessfully trying to fight in Southeast Asia since launching in 2004.

Maxjet Airways has had a rocky few months, with a change of chief executives and a route cancellation, but the all-business class start-up is confident it can fight off a new wave of competitors.

Last week Maxjet's newly revamped management team was in London, promoting its product to the press. A new sale, with one-way fares that start at only £299 or $499 before taxes, and a new advertising campaign is clearly a reaction to Silverjet, which launched all-business class services in January and hosted its own reception in central London the previous week.

"We were the first ones with an all-business class product. We now have so many copycats," chief executive Bill Stockbridge said at the reception he hosted near Trafalgar Square.

Saudi Arabian low-fare start-up NAS Air is making sure its costs are kept as low as possible by having its chief executive captain some of its initial flights.

NAS Air has begun accepting bookings on its colourful website, powered by Navitarie, ahead of its 25 February launch of flights connecting the capital Riyadh with Jeddah. On its recently launched website, NAS Air claims it will be the first airline in Saudi Arabia with a chief executive "who will pilot his own planes".

The chief executive, Peter Griffiths, is a former director of safety and security with easyJet and used to fly Boeing 737s. Griffiths will now be switching to Airbus A320s - NAS Air will start with two A320s ordered by its parent, corporate jet operator National Air Services (NAS).

In addition to Riyadh-Jeddah the new carrier's schedule will include from 31 March flights from its Riyadh base to Madinah. Promotional introductory website-only fares start at just SR9 ($2.40). One-way fares purchased from the call centre or travel agents start at SR99.

NAS Air will be Saudi Arabia's first budget airline and only the third in the Middle East after Sharjah-based Air Arabia and Kuwait-based Jazeera Airways. The carrier's vision is to "give people equal right to fly" and its tagline "hayakkum" means "welcome".

Airbus today completed the first media flight on the A380 without any major hitches but the event was not totally blunder free.

Several oxygen masks accidentally became deployed at takeoff and landing, capturing the attention of television crews including CNN. Airbus technicians quickly responded by re-installing the oxygen masks (see picture), explaining the masks had been tested on the previous flight.

Journalists descended on Toulouse today as Airbus for the first time took the wraps off an A380 with a completed cabin.

Singapore Airlines (SIA) has becoming one of the first Asian carriers to join the growing debate over the aviation industry's impact on the environment.

At SIA's annual parliamentary reception at the House of Commons in London yesterday, general manager of UK and Ireland Marvin Tan told politicians, reporters and industry partners that SIA advocates "an integrated approach to managing the industry's impact on the environment".

"We need to do our bit, but we must also keep the scope of the problem in perspective," Tan says, pointing out the aviation industry's contribution to carbon emissions is only about 2% of the world's total.