Cut-price carrier Tiger Airways is likely to bring the Ryanair model of flying into cheaper, regional airports to Australia when it gets the go-ahead to operate Down Under, chief executive Tony Davis said yesterday.
Tiger, which is backed by Singapore Airlines and Ryanair founder Tony Ryan, last week announced it had applied for government clearance to begin operating in the domestic market before the end of the year.
Davis was coy on the routes Tiger will operate in Australia, saying he did not want to tip off the competition -- Qantas and its budget arm Jetstar as well as Virgin Blue -- but said it would amount to a "comprehensive network."
"At this stage we're not revealing the route network that we're going to propose," he told ABC Television.
"We're going to keep that close to our chest for the time being but, as the regulatory process goes on, we'll be able to reveal more in the coming months," he said.
Davis said the new airline would look at flying into small centers rather than just major cities, similar to the operations of Ryanair in Europe and Tiger services in Asia.
"Well, certainly the success of people like Ryanair in Europe has been that they could go into secondary airports, to go to regional airports and really create new markets and create new opportunities," he said.
"So, what we're looking at in Australia is that -- we'll certainly look at the major cities but we're also keen to bring the advantages of low cost airfares into the regional communities," he said.
He said that Australia, where domestic flights can be lengthy and expensive, did not have particularly low fares and Tiger would use the stripped-back approach of Ryanair to keep costs down.
"It's about having a single aircraft type, it's about operating to regional airports and getting lower fees to use those airports and it's about giving consumers choice to purchase additional services if they require them," Davis said.
"But at its core is a very efficient and very focused business model which allows very low unit costs, and those low unit costs mean sustained and consistent low fares," he said.
Davis said the airline will have an initial investment of up to A$10 million (US$7.8 million) as well as five new Airbus A320s available by the end of the year, with the option of more aircraft if warranted by demand.
"We're determined to make Tiger Airways a national carrier and we'll be entering a lot of markets around the country," he said.
Davis said Tiger would compete aggressively against Qantas.
"We've been competing very aggressively in Singapore against JetStar Asia -- which Qantas brought into the Singapore market -- and it's probably only right and proper that we reciprocate ... by competing aggressively and effectively here in Australia," he said.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
Renewed border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia showed no signs of abating yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced people in both countries living in strained conditions as more flooded into temporary shelters. Reporters on the Thai side of the border heard sounds of outgoing, indirect fire yesterday. About 400,000 people have been evacuated from affected areas in Thailand and about 700 schools closed while fighting was ongoing in four border provinces, said Thai Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesman for the military. Cambodia evacuated more than 127,000 villagers and closed hundreds of schools, the Thai Ministry of Defense said. Thailand’s military announced that
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS