Corporate World

In a three way battle which will begin in February 1st, the question on everyone’s lips would be, would this sector be able to sustain three airlines for Singapore.

If you have seen the interview on Channel News Asia with Tony Fernandez, the CEO of Air Asia, you will notice how he would tell you without reservation that Singapore government had tried to stop him from servicing Singaporeans from Singapore’s soil. Right from beginning they had refused to give him any rights to operate. When his indonesian subsidiary tried to fly in, Singapore government went all out to stop him by giving the excuse that they couldn’t finish the application on time. You believe that?

When he tried to service Singaporeans with buses from certain point in singapore ferrying them across the causeway to fly off, the government came in and deem the transportation illegal and hence the service was stopped. Is this because Singapore government knew their own budget airline is weak and needed more time to protect them from this ferocious budget giant known as Air Asia?

In terms of size Air Asia beats both the singapore budget carriers hands down. Its sheer size would mean that it has many services and would be an advantage in terms of connectivity. It has two other subsidiaries in Indonesia and Thailand meaning that within ASEAN, Air Asia is the largest budget carrier.

Tiger Airways, no matter how you want to perceive them, is more of a copy of Air Asia. Air Asia made no secrets that its business model is based on Ryan Air, a leading European budget carrier. With recent involvement of Richard Branson in Air Asia X, one cannot help but feel that it is a stamp of approval that Air Asia X will be likely to soar the sky even further.

When February 1st arrive, the winner it seems would be Air Asia rather than the other two as Air Asia would be the only one with connectivity to other parts of the world especially with their long haul budget airline, Air Asia X already in service. Tiger Airways and Jetstar do not offer anything more than what Air Asia offers. With further liberalisation due later in the year and with Air Asia X announcing more international routes, the scale would seem to tip in favour of the Malaysian carrier.

Will Singaporeans finally get a choice in budget travelling? Give it a year and the figures will show. Perhaps competiton has finally arrive in Singapore for budget travelling.