At a time when the cost of international air travel is at an all-time low, prices are about to sharpen even further … through the Asia Pacific at least.
The world’s largest low-cost carrier alliance has been announced with Australian connectors Scoot and Tigerair Australia joining six other airlines in the region which combined, reach 160 destinations all now unified by one booking process.
To be known as the Value Alliance, this union of 176 aircraft means each company’s own website will access the offers and services of each other’s so customers no longer need to jump around the internet looking for bargains.
The alliance partner airlines are Singapore’s Scoot, Tigerair Singapore, Tigerair Australia, Cebu Pacific (including subsidiary Cebgo – Philippines), Jeju Air (South Korea), Nok Air (Thailand), NokScoot (Thailand) and Vanilla Air (Japan). Together they operate from 17 hubs through Southeast Asia, North Asia and Australia.
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These low-cost ie: “no-frills” airlines might not be for everyone but for short haul flights like those around the Asia Pacific, it’s often hard to go passed those ticket prices no matter how basic the service. And now that everything is synced up and simplified, it should be easier than ever to put together an unbeatably low-cost itinerary.
Given the aggressive competition in the marketplace – and it will be interesting to see how Jetstar and Air Asia counterpunch this announcement – attention-grabbing, regular, extraordinary deals are core business for these low-cost carriers.
It’s not out of the question you could pick up two sectors for less than $100 now that all the sales and specials are linked across eight companies vying for your business.
Scoot, Nok Air and NokScoot have already begun the program with the other alliance members coming online over the next few months.
In 2015, the airlines collectively served more than 47 million travellers and with tourism numbers in the Asia Pacific expected to reach 500 million by 2020, there’s plenty of room to grow.
At this stage, there is no ‘check-through’ baggage service offered between different airlines – meaning you will have to collect baggage and re-recheck if you change carriers – and no frequent flyer program.
It’s no secret these low-cost carriers make a healthy margin on the add-ons you get slugged with as you walk through the booking process – luggage allowances, extra legroom seats, meal options, entertainment packages, insurances etc – but if you carefully wade through the options without ticking the annoying checkboxes too many times, you are often still way, way ahead on comparative airfare rates.