Thai Tiger Airlines

[Guest GaySacGuy]

Guess we will have another low cost air carrier in Asia...This from ThaiVisa

 

 

 

Thai Tiger Airways to Proceed

 

The Chairman of the Thai Airways' board said Thai Tiger Airline, the joint venture between Thai Airways and Tiger Airline, will go ahead as planned.

National Economic and Social Development Board Secretary-General Ampon Kittiampon, in his capacity as the chairman to the board of Thai Airways, said

 

Thai Tiger Airline, the future joint venture between Thai Airways and Tiger Airline of Singapore, remains in the pipelines, and he is ready to answer

questions regarding the low-cost airline, to Transport Minister Sophon Saram.

 

Thai Airways sent a letter to the Transport Ministry informing the ministry of the joint venture.

 

Next week the transport minister will meet with the board of Thai Airways to discuss the new budget airline in detail.

 

The cost to set up Thai Tiger Airline is set at 200 million baht, 300 million baht less than the cost of setting up Nok Air. The difference is that Thai Tiger Airline will be co-owned by a foreign airline, and, therefore, it must be thoroughly examined.

 

According to Thai Airway

[Guest fountainhall]

Guess we will have another low cost air carrier in Asia...This from ThaiVisa

This joint venture was announced some weeks ago. Many expressed concern at where it would fly and how it would make a profit, given the presence of Thai Air Asia, Nok and 1 2 Go in the domestic market. I reckon it certainly makes sense for it to take over most of TG's domestic routes. This would enable TG to sell some of its old Airbus aircraft and keep its larger aircraft on international services.

 

Wherever it flies, look out for major inaugural discounts and a price war. It can only be good news.

[Guest beachlover]

This is fantastic.

 

Tiger is under a lot of pressure since Jetstar and AirAsia (two biggest competitors) formed a strategic partnership. Jetstar and AirAsia have a LOT of bases under their belt between them... Singapore, KL, BKK, some of the Vietnamese cities, Jakarta and more. Tiger only has Singapore, I think.

[Guest fountainhall]

Tiger only has Singapore, I think.

The existing Tiger is a joint venture between Singapore AIrlines and Qantas, hence it's Australian bias. In Asia it flies out of Singapore's low cost terminal (pretty basic, but better than the one in KL) and links several asian cities with SIngapore, including Bangkok. I have found it several nothches higher than AIr Asia. When a Tiger flight was cancelled during the red-shirt protests, Tiger contacted me in the UK and actually offered me alternatives. When Air Asia cancelled, it was almost 2 months before I found out about it and only one alternative was offered. But I know others have found Air Asia better. So it's up to you.

 

What is potentially exciting is the possibility of long-range low cost services out of BKK. Air Asia is now doing this with Air Asia X out of KL. For Thai passengers, this is not very convenient because the timing of the flights make a night's stop-over in KL essential. But if Thai Tiger was to offer long-range flights to Europe and the US, with the possibillty of a low cost business class product, I think it would be an absolute winner.

[Guest beachlover]

The existing Tiger is a joint venture between Singapore AIrlines and Qantas, hence it's Australian bias.

 

Huh?... Tiger was setup by and is part-owned by Singapore Airlines. Qantas has nothing to do with Tiger.

 

However Qantas have a low-cost carrier subsidiary called, Jetstar. And Jetstar have agreed to a strategic partnership with AirAsia to strengthen their ability to compete with Tiger.

 

Tiger do have a bit of a shocking record for customer service in Australia... but they've said they are working to turn this around.

 

Low-cost long-haul flights out of BKK would be fantastic. I wonder if there's any possibility of a Sydney - BKK route. The Sydney - KL route was approved by the Australian authorities by barred by the Malaysian government to protect government owned, Malaysian Airlines.

[Guest GaySacGuy]

 

 

What is potentially exciting is the possibility of long-range low cost services out of BKK. Air Asia is now doing this with Air Asia X out of KL. For Thai passengers, this is not very convenient because the timing of the flights make a night's stop-over in KL essential. But if Thai Tiger was to offer long-range flights to Europe and the US, with the possibillty of a low cost business class product, I think it would be an absolute winner.

 

With Thai Air in the agreemeent, I don't see much chance of that...I don't think they want Thai Tiger to compete with them on their money making long haul flights???

[Guest fountainhall]

With Thai Air in the agreemeent, I don't see much chance of that...I don't think they want Thai Tiger to compete with them on their money making long haul flights???

My understanding is that Thai Tiger will not compete directly with THAI because it will offer a very basic service at a lower cost than TG. They will therefore be competing for largely separate markets. The announcement blurb said it would be for domestic and international flights, but did not specify any routes. Like other low cost carriers, I assume it will offer only point-to-point services, making it less likely to take traffic away from TG.

[Guest beachlover]

Qantas built a very good full-service/LLC business model with its Jetstar subsidiary.

 

None of the international Jetstar routes compete directly with Qantas routes.

 

Some of the Qantas routes, which were unprofitable or less profitable for Qantas were switched to Jetstar routes and become quite profitable with the LCC.

 

If THAI could do a similar thing with Thai Tiger Airways, there may be a lot of profit to be made. In the case of Qantas, Jetstar was critical to holding up its profitability during difficult periods. There were some periods where Qantas (full service operations) was running at a loss and it was Jetstar's profits, which made the company profitable as a whole.

[Guest GaySacGuy]

My understanding is that Thai Tiger will not compete directly with THAI because it will offer a very basic service at a lower cost than TG. They will therefore be competing for largely separate markets. The announcement blurb said it would be for domestic and international flights, but did not specify any routes. Like other low cost carriers, I assume it will offer only point-to-point services, making it less likely to take traffic away from TG.

 

I think that is probably right on the money. They will not probably offer competing flights at all. I wonder which routes Tiger Thai might choose that will result in cheaper travel for some of us???

[Guest beachlover]

Remember, if they follow a similar strategy to Qantas/Jetstar, then just because THAI is already flying a certain route doesn't mean Thai Tiger won't. It just means they will axe the THAI flights and replace them with Thai Tiger flights.

 

But I think it will take a while to introduce routes and they will probably start with short-haul.

 

This move is well overdue. AirAsia has been kicking arse with its operations flying out of Bangkok... running circles around THAI.

[Guest GaySacGuy]

 

This move is well overdue. AirAsia has been kicking arse with its operations flying out of Bangkok... running circles around THAI.

 

Air Asia has it nitch in the air business...but it isn't touching Thai for long haul..not till it expands to Europe or the Americas

[Guest beachlover]

True... But it is now doing this from its KL base, flying to Australia and the UK. I wonder if there's anything (e.g. regulatory/government approval) stopping it from doing the same out of BKK.

[Guest GaySacGuy]

True... But it is now doing this from its KL base, flying to Australia and the UK. I wonder if there's anything (e.g. regulatory/government approval) stopping it from doing the same out of BKK.

There are many regulations regarding international flight treaties, plus you need the permission of the foreign government to use their facilities. In the US, foreign carriers are generally not allowed to carry passengers from one US stop to another. In other words they can't fly into LAX, offload and onload passengers, and then fly to Seattle before returning to their home country. Something about that makes them a domestic carrier.

[Guest beachlover]

Yes but aren't we talking about long-haul for Thai Tiger?

 

How do the regulations you describe stop Thai-Tiger from taking, THAI's already approved (in Thailand and Australia) slot for the BKK-Sydney route?

[Guest fountainhall]

True... But it is now doing this from its KL base, flying to Australia and the UK. I wonder if there's anything (e.g. regulatory/government approval) stopping it from doing the same out of BKK.

Any long haul flights out of Bangkok would have to be Thai Air Asia which is majority owned by Thai shareholders.

[Guest beachlover]

Yeah, you're right, it would be Thai AirAsia, not AirAsia X.