Word: budgeting
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...frills carriers have also been helped by the changing attitudes of Asian governments. Instead of defending national-flag carriers, officials are clued in to the possibility that budget airlines can invigorate underused airports and attract much needed tourist dollars. Singapore is building a new terminal as a hub for budget carriers, and other countries have been wooing no-frills airlines by reducing airport fees. In Kota Kinabalu, AirAsia took over a mothballed terminal, which now buzzes with eight flights a day. Fernandes wants to turn the building into a regional hub. "The loyalty to national carriers is getting more...
Asia's major airlines will soon start feeling the pinch. Airline analysts and executives expect budget carriers to drag down fares throughout Asia. Both Singapore Airlines and Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific, Asia's premier airlines, deny they are cutting prices in response to this new threat. But they have been offering what they call routine special promotions. In May Cathay Pacific sold round trips between Hong Kong and Singapore for $128even less than the $160 fare offered by Singapore-based low-cost carrier Valuair, which started flying that same month. Major airlines "have been advertising prices even lower than...
What makes the budget carriers such ornery opponents is their relentless cost cutting. Fernandes, who has dreamed up all kinds of ways to save money, claims AirAsia is the world's lowest-cost airline. He pays his flight attendants to clean planes instead of hiring special crews, which not only lowers costs but also chops the time spent boarding at terminals to 25 minutes--about half that of the major airlines. His pilots are trained to land at a farther point on the runway and at a slower speed to conserve fuel and reduce wear and tear on tires. Half...
Still, even Fernandes doesn't expect budget airlines to create the same upheaval for big carriers in Asia that they have in the U.S. and Europe. A tighter web of regulation provides established airlines more protection by preventing low-cost carriers from hopping from city to city around Asia the way Ryanair does in Europe. With only 2% of airline capacity in the region, the budget carriers have a long way to go to challenge the big boys. Most of all, major Asian airlines have much lower costs than their U.S. and European counterparts, allowing them to compete more easily...
With so many budget carriers starting up, they might be a bigger threat to one another than to the major carriers. Thailand has no fewer than seven low-cost operators. In September, Singapore's A-Sonic Aerospace said it plans to start a budget carrier in China with a Chinese state company. Tiny Singapore will be home to three low-cost airlines: Valuair, Jetstar Asia (which boasts Australia's Qantas Airways as a large shareholder) and Tiger Airways (backed by Singapore Airlines). "We'll grow as quickly as we can and fly wherever we can," vows Stephen Johnson of Indigo...