Budget airline Jetstar Asia yesterday announced cut-rate fares to its initial destinations of Hong Kong, Thailand and Taiwan and said it was seeking rights to fly to India and additional routes to China.
Singapore-based Jetstar Asia Pte Ltd, which is backed by Australia's Qantas Airways Ltd, said a ticket to Hong Kong would start at a promotional S$48 each way (US$29) with service beginning Monday.
PHOTO: AFP
A one-way fare to the Thai beach resort of Pattaya would start at S$29 (US$17) beginning a week later, while service from Singapore to Taipei would start on Dec. 16, with the price of a one-way ticket starting at S$88 (US$53).
Jetstar's chief operating officer, Con Korfiatis, also said the airline would begin flying to Shanghai from January, but company officials were also eyeing other Chinese destinations south of the commercial center.
He said the carrier was hoping that Singapore's "very proactive" pursuit of trade deals with China and India would open up the possibility of new routes for Jetstar to those countries.
Korfiatis said the impending free trade deal between the city-state and New Delhi would likely result in new destinations such as Chennai and Mumbai "sooner rather than later" for the budget carrier.
Jetstar Asia is the third low-cost airline to be launched this year out of Singapore after Valuair and Tiger Airways -- backed by Singapore Airlines Ltd.
"We have said from the beginning that our success will depend on our ability to grow the market and by becoming the first low-cost carrier to serve several major population centers,'' Korfiatis said.
The low-cost carrier's four other confirmed destinations -- Shanghai, the Philippines capital of Manila, Surabaya and Jakarta in Indonesia -- would be offered from January.
Korfiatis said earlier Jetstar Asia would differentiate itself from its rivals, including the region's low-budget pioneer, Malaysia's Air Asia Bhd, by flying longer-haul routes.
Singapore's aviation authorities have embraced the growth of low-cost fliers and are building a passenger terminal at Changi Airport specifically for discount airlines. It is set to open in 2006.
Jetstar Asia is 49 percent held by Qantas, Australia's national carrier. Its other significant backers include Temasek Holdings Ltd, the Singapore government's main investment arm, which holds 19 percent.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
MIXED SOURCING: While Taiwan is expanding domestic production, it also sources munitions overseas, as some, like M855 rounds, are cheaper than locally made ones Taiwan and the US plan to jointly produce 155mm artillery shells, as the munition is in high demand due to the Ukraine-Russia war and should be useful in Taiwan’s self-defense, Armaments Bureau Director-General Lieutenant General Lin Wen-hsiang (林文祥) told lawmakers in Taipei yesterday. Lin was responding to questions about Taiwan’s partnership with allies in producing munitions at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. Given the intense demand for 155mm artillery shells in Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion, and in light of Taiwan’s own defensive needs, Taipei and Washington plan to jointly produce 155mm shells, said Lin,
RSS