rev wrote: ↑Tue Aug 07, 2018 1:29 pm
What about HK Express, a Hong Kong based low cost carrier? Although we already have Cathay Pacific flying to Hong Kong.
Would it have to necessarily fly Adelaide to Singapore(in the case of Scoot), or Hong Kong for HK Express? Would it be possible to fly Adelaide to the Philippines for example with one of these low cost carriers? HK Express flies to Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, and Scoot does the Philippines..both also fly to South Korea and Japan, two countries they should be looking at having direct flights with along with the USA imho.
My take on your thoughts rev.
I kind of like
Hong Kong Express, it is a nice little airline. They are partly owned by
HNA Group, the same company that has a share in
Virgin Australia and owns
Hong Kong Airlines and
Hainan Airlines, of which both codeshare with
Virgin.
HK Express are very unlikely to fly all the way to Australia. They are well cemented in Asia. Besides
HNA would have some say in any decision.
HNA is also in a bit of financial strife at present. Competition wise
HK Express does not compete directly with
Cathay Pacific, however thanks to
Cathay’s lack of interest in operating a low-cost airline and Asians wanting cheap fares,
HK Express has garnered a solid base of customers.
As for indirect flights to Hong Kong or Singapore, both
HK Express and
Scoot fly out of their respective hubs. I think both would need to obtain fifth freedom rights to fly Adelaide-SE Asia and then to their hubs. The difference with
Scoot is they already fly to the Gold Coast, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney and connect to the remainder of cities through
Virgin and
Tigerair.
Scoot is also part of the
Value Alliance, that comprises other low-cost carriers:
Cebu Pacific/cebgo (Philippines),
Jejuair (South Korea),
Nok Air (Thailand),
NokScoot (Thailand),
Vanilla Air (Japan) and
Tigerair Australia.
Scoot also has plenty of connections into Asia, Europe, USA etc., through its parent
Singapore Airlines.
I think our best candidates from Asia are: India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. This is on top of possible expansion into China (Shanghai and Beijing) with
China Eastern and
Air China.
The biggest untapped market as yet is India though. There are three candidates that have the potential to fly here:
Air India,
Jet Airways and
Vistara. The national carrier
Air India already flies to Sydney and Melbourne on alternate days.
Jet Airways codeshares with
QANTAS and
Vistara codeshares with
Singapore Airlines. All three also have limitations.
Air India is in chronic debt and needs a suitor,
Jet Airways has money issues and
Vistara still in its early stages.
If we consider financial situations and trends, I think
Vistara has the brightest future. They are a full service airline, half owned by
Singapore Airlines and the legendary
Tata Brothers. A great little airline that is growing at the right pace. Currently they are acquiring new planes that will be capable of flying to Australia. One possible obstacle though.
Singapore Airlines may veto flights to Australia in the short term preferring to funnel passengers via Singapore. Of course things are fluid and changes can happen in future. The possibility is there.
The other Indian airlines in my opinion don’t get a mention, the low-cost carriers
IndiGo and
SpiceJet.
IndiGo is probably the most successful of the Indian airlines, however their biggest issue is they fly domestically and only have one international route, Dubai. They have a long way to go!
SpiceJet the same.
The other countries mentioned…
Indonesia:
Garuda and low-cost
Lion Air.
Philippines:
PAL and low-cost
Cebu Pacific.
Thailand:
Thai Airways,
Bangkok Airways and low-cost airlines
Nok Air and
NokScoot.
Vietnam:
Vietnam Airlines and low-cost
VietJet.
I will also mention Malaysia’s full-service airline
Malindo Air and low-cost
Air Asia and Taiwan’s full-service airlines
China Airlines,
EVA Air and low-cost
Tigerair Taiwan.
Out of all these only the national carriers and
Air Asia (as in
Air Asia X) have the metal to fly here. Whether they would is another question. If they did, frequencies would be not more than two or three times weekly, possibly 4 times if
Air Asia X resumes their service here.
Japan and South Korea are two markets that I think many would like, I’m one of them. Possibly in the distant future. Both Japan (
ANA and
JAL) and South Korea (
Asiana and
Korean Air) have airlines capable of flying to Adelaide direct. Perhaps
AAL should push for an airline from each. Frequency of two to three times a week would be good. North America (Canada, the USA and Hawaii) hopefully soon according to
AAL.
The map I put together earlier in the thread shows many connections that are available. It would be great to have direct flights to many of them. The question is always “can they be sustained and be profitable”? If Adelaide had a population of around 1.6~2 million it would make a difference. At present all we can do is expand our education, industry, technology and tourism and hope to build connections this way.
floplo wrote: ↑Tue Aug 07, 2018 6:49 pm
There are surprisingly few flights between Australia and South Korea (2 from Sydney, one from Brisbane, seemingly none from Melbourne), and I assume airlines would fly Melbourne-Seoul first before they connect Adelaide. And about Japan, well, should have bought the Japanese subs instead.... I assume Singapore and Hong Kong are big enough to dominate those routes, and only a few people use Tokyo or Seoul to fly to Europe or the US (and yes, I have done Adelaide to Europe via Tokyo), so the routes there aren't interesting as feeders into a hub system.
Correct.
Cheers
