Low-Cost Airlines Swooping Down On Asia

The explosion of low-fare carriers has spread beyond the US and Europe and is now rocking the air travel market in Asia. The West Australian Newspaper calls it something akin to an "aviation gold rush," even though the worldwide market continues to reel from 9/11, the war on terror and the SARS epidemic.

"We ain't seen nothing yet," said Peter Harbison, managing director at the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation, a consulting firm based in Sydney. "This is going to be a big, big movement."

The latest to join the fray is Singapore Airlines, with plans to launch its low-cost airline, Tiger Airways, next year. Tiger is also owned by Europe's already-established low-cost carrier, Ryanair. Then there's Thai Airways' econoline and two from Britain's Richard Branson -- Virgin Blue and Pacific Blue.

"Asia is playing catch-up," said Joyce Lai, spokeswoman for the low-cost Malaysian carrier AirAsia, which has met with success on both domestic international routes. AirAsia, in fact, went international earlier this month with flights to the Thai resort island of Phuket.

The result? Low fares that, in some cases, might be too low. "Most of the time you can get really good rates - in fact, sometimes it's cheaper than bus tickets from Penang to Kuala Lumpur," Penang travel agent George Ong said.

Asian aviation-watchers say the gold rush will end in bust for some carriers. "You see all of the new names appearing - in three years I don't think they'll all still be there," said Philip Wickham, an aviation analyst for investment bank ING Barings in Hong Kong. He suggests the Asian startups won't be able to do what Southwest, JetBlue and other low-fare carriers have done here in the US -- find secondary airports from which to operate at a lower cost.

FMI: www.pata.org