Thai AirAsia

Thai Tiger officially and finally dropped, pressuring Tiger to look elsewhere for growth

Thai Tiger, the proposed joint-venture between Thai Airways and the Singapore-based Tiger Airways that has been languishing for months, is finally being recognised by Tiger as over. This acknowledgement continues the pressure on Tiger Airways to find bases for aircraft it planned to deploy with Thai Tiger as well as a number of other projects that have languished as well. The impact of these non-starts is evident at Tiger Airways Singapore, which last month announced a large loss for the quarter ending 30-Sep-2011 as it failed to absorb the large capacity Tiger put in after having nowhere else to deploy it to.

Thailand’s Nok Air to stick with domestic focus following ownership restructure and fleet renewal

Thai low-cost carrier Nok Air is entering a new phase in its development as it plans major capacity growth and pursues a closer relationship with part-owner Thai Airways. But at least for now Nok will remain focused entirely on the domestic market despite the potential opportunity to fill the void in Thai’s group strategy left by previously planned international LCC Thai Tiger.

Nok is one of the oldest LCCs in Asia, having just celebrated its seventh birthday, but is perhaps the least known as its brand, while very strong locally, has virtually no international exposure. The carrier’s profitability and success at carving out a niche by focusing on the local Thai market, and particularly the country’s younger generation, has gone largely noticed in the global industry. Nok has quietly grown to become a major player in Thailand, accounting for a 20% share of Thailand’s fast-growing domestic market according to capacity data from Innovata.

Thai Airways to use Thai Smile to fight back at AirAsia and rapid LCC growth in Thailand

Thai Airways’ new regional unit, Thai Smile, will initially compete primarily against Thai AirAsia on domestic routes when it launches services at the middle of next year. While Thai Smile will offer some frills and connect with Thai Airways and other Star Alliance carriers, the unit’s lower cost base is designed to compete more effectively against Thai’s largest local rival.

The Thai Airways board late last month approved the brand name Thai Smile, replacing Thai Wing, which has been the provisional name since the board initially approved in May-2011 the creation of a new regional airline unit. Thai Smile is now aiming to launch domestic services in Jul-2012 from a base at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, following a hybrid model that is part LCC and part full-service regional carrier.

AirAsia's "unique franchise" of JVs drive profits and spread risk

AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes described the group’s second quarter (three months ended 30-Jun-2011) as “one of the best quarters” in its history, in light of the myriad difficulties facing the industry. The results, which, for the first time were reported as separate businesses rather than as a group, demonstrate the robustness of the AirAsia model, with strong performances in key metrics across the board.

Thai presses on with current strategy and new regional carrier despite upcoming political changes

Thai Airways International is moving forward with plans to launch new regional carrier Thai Wing despite the possibility of a change in management and strategy after Thailand’s new government comes to power. The new government is also being asked to quickly make a decision on Thai’s proposal to launch a joint venture low-cost carrier with Tiger Airways.

Paris 2011: AirAsia’s landmark order pushes A320neo programme beyond 1,000 orders

With a landmark order for 200 A320neos, AirAsia has committed to increasing its narrowbody fleet to 375 aircraft and expects it will need at least 125 more aircraft as it works on establishing at least two more joint venture carriers. The deal, signed at the Paris Air Show on 23-Jun-2011, is the largest ever single order placed with Airbus in terms of number of aircraft. It also extends the total number of aircraft sold by Airbus this week to 730 – an all-time air show record – and even more impressively means the manufacturer has now sold over 1,000 A320neos since the programme was launched only six months ago.