Tiger Airways

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.

Sydney Airport divides terminals along alliance lines but risks alienating new carriers

Sydney Airport will narrow its competitive disadvantage of having separate domestic and international terminals with a plan to split its terminals by 2019 into two alliance-based precincts: one for Qantas and its partners and one for Virgin Australia and its partners. The two groupings will account for 81% of all movements. Leftover international carriers will in most cases use the Virgin terminal while a plan is underway to address leftover domestic and regional airlines, notably Tiger Airways and Regional Express. While the plan may placate the two big airline groupings in Australia, Sydney airport may face a shortfall of placement options for new carriers looking to offer their passengers onward domestic connections.

Sydney airport expects to formally begin stakeholder consulting with the aim of including the proposal in its 2014 master plan, which will be drafted in late 2013. Qantas and Virgin Australia, Sydney's two largest occupants based on movements and seats, have already given their support with the signing of a non-binding memorandum of understanding. The proposal will critically increase gates but not change slot restrictions, the airport's curfew or noise regulations.

Tiger Airways’ pan-Asian ambitions floundering with dire need for growth

With progress still to emerge on a series of pan-Asian joint-ventures, Tiger Airways is nearing a tipping point where it must decide if it can be a baby pan-Asian carrier to the more successful AirAsia and Jetstar, or if reality will constrain it to a limited and disconnected franchise network. The implications may make or break the airline group: stalled progress on joint ventures (JV) and a reduced network in Australia saw Tiger instead deploy capacity on its Singapore network. That proved too much, blowing out costs and causing the usually healthy operation to post a SGD12 million (USD9.3 million) loss for the quarter to 30-Sep-2011.

Expected poor performance in Australia as the carrier was impacted from a six-week imposed grounding saw the subsidiary post a SGD27.2 million (USD21 million) loss.

Jetstar, with Guangzhou, continues China expansion as Australia and SE Asia take back seat

Jetstar Asia is continuing what it sees as the decade of North Asian expansion with a service to Guangzhou, the third largest airport in China with 1.1 million weekly seats available. By comparison, London Heathrow has 1.7 million weekly seats available. Jetstar sees greater growth prospects in North Asia, which has a LCC penetration rate of under 5% compared to approximately 30% in Southeast Asia.

The Guangzhou route is the latest in a big push by Jetstar into China. It launched service to Ningbo last month and is launching service to Beijing next month. With Guangzhou, Jetstar Asia will have seven destinations in mainland China and 10 in greater China. Two more Chinese cities are expected to be added by the end of this year and many more in subsequent years. “There are many, many cities” in China that Jetstar is prepared to serve, CEO Bruce Buchannan previously remarked.

Tiger looks to catch-up after rights issue and departure of founding CEO Tony Davis

Tiger Airways is trying to move forward after surviving the most challenging chapter in its six-year history, capped off recently by a further shake-up in Tiger’s executive team, with founding CEO Tony Davis leaving the group, and a rights issue. Tiger's position going forward is significantly improved, but it still has several challenges to overcome if it has any chances of catching up with rival LCC groups AirAsia and Jetstar, which have successfully established pan-Asian footprints while similar efforts at Tiger have so far failed.