Budget airline Tigerair Taiwan (台灣虎航), the nation’s first low-cost carrier, is to begin its second and third regular route — to Thailand’s Bangkok and Chiang Mai — in mid-November.
The airline announced the plan prior to the launch of its maiden flight to Singapore on Friday.
“The company is to offer a daily flight from Taipei to Bangkok, while providing a service to Chiang Mai of four flights per week,” Tigerair Taiwan chief executive Kwan Yue (關栩) told a press conference yesterday.
Photo: Hu Shun-hsiang, Taipei Times
Tigerair Taiwan, a joint venture between Taiwan’s China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) and Tiger Airways Pte of Singapore, has found its niche on the back of its affiliation with its Singaporean shareholder.
Kwan said the cooperation would allow Tigerair Taiwan passengers, on arriving in Singapore, to take a connecting flight on Singapore’s Tiger Airways to other destinations.
Before Tigerair Taiwan’s launch, the nation had been host to 13 budget carriers from other countries, with a total of 16 regular routes, since the first began operating in Taiwan nearly a decade ago, with the market share held by budget airlines at 7.2 percent, Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) data showed.
Following in the footsteps of Tigerair Taiwan, another new low-cost carrier, V Air (威航), operating under the TransAsia Airways Group (復興航空集團), is also scheduled to start services by the end of this year, with an inaugural flight from Taipei to Bangkok.
In other developments, the CAA yesterday urged the Greater Kaohsiung Government to lift the night flight ban on its international airport to promote the development of local low-cost carriers.
The ban on flights between midnight and 6:30am is a major obstacle, as flight frequency is critical for the airlines, CAA Director-General Jean Shen (沈啟) said at a Tigerair Taiwan promotional event.
However, it would require more effort by authorities to assuage the concerns of residents living in the vicinity of the airport to achieve the goal, Shen said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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