Anon 9:47 am
A quick check on the Wikipedia entries for KLIA and Changi Airport shows the LCCs operating at each airport.
Let’s do the tally:
KLIA: Air India Express, AirAsia (including AirAsia Philippines, Indonesia AirAsia, Thai AirAsia), AirAsia X, Bangkok Airways, Cebu Pacific, Jetstar Asia, Lion Air and Tiger Airways
Changi: AirAsia (including AirAsia Philippines, Indonesia AirAsia, Thai AirAsia), Air India Express, Bangkok Airways, Cebu Pacific, Firefly, Indigo, Jetstar, Jetstar Asia, Lion Air, Scoot and Tiger Airways.
To my simple mind, it seems that AirAsia has plenty of LCC competition at KLIA, including the “biggies” such as Cebu Pacific, Jetstar Asia, Lion Air and Tiger Airways.
It should also be noted that Firefly operates out of Subang Airport in KL – something that the airline is inordinately proud about.
As to why Indigo, Jetstar (the Australian offshoot) and Scoot are not operating out of KLIA,perhaps the question should be addressed to Malaysia Airports (MAHB). Perhaps CAG is doing a better job promoting Changi Airport than MAHB is doing for KLIA?
Maybe YB Wee could ask the hard questions of MAHB – like how is it that Changi Airport handled more than 50 million passengers last year? How is it that Changi hosts 109 scheduled airlines which make 6,544 weekly flights to 241 cities in 61 countries (Singapore Business Times, Feb 1, 2013)? How is it that LCCs accounted for over 25% of the air traffic at Changi last year, with nary a peep about “unfair competition”? Why is Changi boosting it’s capacity to 85 million passengers with the new Terminal 4 and upgrading of the existing terminals? How is KLIA going to compete with Changi, given that the latter is already “among the busiest and most connected international hubs east of Suez)?
And here’s something that YB Wee could perhaps raise with the Transport Ministry. This is prompted by a report “More flights, lower fares between S’pore, Indonesia) in the Singapore Straits Times on Jan 31, 2013.
It was reported that the Singapore and Indonesian governments “have agreed to allow their carriers to fly more often between Changi Airport and several Indonesian cities, including Jakarta, Surabaya and Medan”.
It was also reported that Indonesian airlines like Garuda and Lion Air have been allowed to fly from Singapore to other parts of Asia, pending approval from the Indonesian government.
The report noted that Singapore-Jakarta is Changi Airport’s busiest route, with over 1,000 weekly flights operated by 16 airlines. It is also the world’s second-busiest international air link after Hong Kong-Taipei.
(Question: what are the corresponding figures for the number of weekly flights and airlines on the KLIA-Jakarta route?)
The Straits Times report quoted Lion Air’s president director Rusdi Kirana as saying: “With more rights, we hope to double our dally Jakarta-Singapore services fromn 6 now to about 10 or 12…..From Singapore to Bangkok and Hong Kong are some markets we would be keen to explore.”"
Given the above, what will that do to the much-vaunted Mandala Airlines launch out of KLIA? At the time it was announced, there was much ballyhoo about how competition from Mandala would knock AirAsia off it’s peg.
It looks as if Mr Rusdi is playing the Changi card well and keeping his options way open.
