Page 13 - AAA APRIL - MAY 2017 Online Magazine

FEATURE LOW COST CARRIERS

AirAsia reaffirmed its position as
the largest airline customer for
Airbus’ best-selling single-aisle
A320 product line with its first
order for the A321neo (new engine
option) version – which comprised
100 aircraft, and was announced at
the 2016 Farnborough Airshow

another player in 2018 when start-up KAIR serve Peshawar, Quetta and Nawabshah. order but expansion had been slow because
Airlines begins flying Airbus A320s. Airbus International flights were next in 2005 to it had apparently fallen out of favour because
announced on March 13 that the start-up had Dubai and in 2007 to Manchester using the of a political change in Guangzhou, CAPA
signed a firm order for eight A320ceos to Airbus A321s. Airbus A340s were added in suggested last year. But in January, with the
operate from its base in Cheongju, in central 2012 to bolster the Manchester route with delivery of its 10th and 11th 737 the airline
South Korea to international destinations nonstop capability and Birmingham was announced five new routes flagging that
in North East Asia. Byung Ho Kang, KAIR added in September 2013. However technical the shackles may be off. The new routes
Airlines chairman, said in a statement that issues saw the suspension of A340 services are: Guangzhou-Wuxi; Guangzhou- Harbin;
the airline saw “enormous potential for the and with them the termination of both Guiyang-Wenzhou; Guiyang-Jinan-Harbin,
development of a low-cost model linking UK flights. Today Air Blue has eight A320/ and Guiyang-Boao.
central South Korea with destinations in A321 aircraft serving 12 mostly domestic The question for many of the smaller
China, Taiwan and Japan.” The startup faces destinations with international services to LCC players around the region is could a
stiff competition from Air Seoul, Eastar Jet, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Islamabad and Jeddah. linkup with Indigo Partners to morph into
Jeju Air, Jin Air, Air Busan and T’way Airlines. At the other extreme of the region Spring a ULCC be the ticket to rapid growth. The
According to AirlineRatings.com South Airlines Japan Co. Ltd. is China’s first entry big attraction for Indigo of an established
Korea’s LCCs enjoy a 22 percent market into the Japanese market and it started airline is that most of the regulatory hurdles
share on South Korea’s international routes, operations in August 2014. The airline is a JV should be behind the airline and thus a rapid
up from 16.2 per cent in 2015, and experts with various Japanese institutions including relaunch would be a relatively easy affair.
predict they are heading quickly towards the JTB which sells tours to Chinese visitors. The biggest problem for the growth of
30 per cent. They dominate the domestic While Spring operators A320s, Boeing 737- smaller LCCs in Asia is that while the talk is
market with a combined market share of 56.6 800s were chosen because of the dominance liberalisation the reality in many parts of the
per cent, according to November government of that type in Japan and the availability of region is the opposite.
statistics reported by the Pulse business 737 endorsed pilots. The airline has just four
news site. 737-800s and nine destinations from its
Way to the east Pakistan’s Air Blue base at Narita. They are: Chongqing, Harbin
typifies many of the smaller LCCs in Asia and Wuhan in China and Hiroshima, Osaka,
that have started with a flurry and their Saga, Sapporo and Takamatsu. There are
progress has stalled. Launched in 2003 and no announced plans for expansion. Another
started operations in June 2004 with three smaller LCC is China’s 9 Air which is a
Airbus A320s from the base at Karachi subsidiary of Juneyao Airlines. Established
to Lahore and Islamabad with three daily in 2014 services did not start from its base
flights. During its first year, it flew over at Guangzhou until January 2015. While it
400,000 passengers and quickly grew to has only 11 737-800s in its fleet, it has 40 on
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