Low cost airline operator Feel Air is waiting for the right financial climate to launch long haul, low-fare services from Stockholm to Bangkok and New York with two leased Airbus A330s.
Speaking at the Global Low Cost Airlines Conference in London, Feel Air CEO Kai Holmberg said he was encouraged by the success of AirAsiaX.
The Malaysian low cost carrier, which flies between Kuala Lumpur and London, and KL and Australia, revealed at the conference that it would be adding a new European route soon.
Crawford Rix, formerly with bmi Baby and speaking in his new role as head of Tiger Airways Australia, was bullish about his airline’s chances against the might of Qantas, JetStar and Virgin Blue.
“Tiger is s the only true LCC in Australia,” he said.
Peter Harbison, from the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, noted that the market in Australia is growing at about five percent, “yet there is 12-13 percent more capacity coming in”.
SpiceJet CCO Sam Sridharan said he believes the LCC sector in India would capture three quarters of the price-driven domestic market in the next five years.
He said budget carriers would expand aggressively while their full-service counterparts would take a more cautious approach, focused on capacity, minimising losses and improving profitability.
SpiceJet launched its first international services with daily B737-800 flights from Delhi-Kathmandu in Nepal. Last week it added daily flights from Chennai to Colombo.
Reporting by Alison Chambers from Emerald Media www.emeraldmedia.co.uk
