Budget Airline Blog

The carrier has been allowed to keep its nine different categories of cheap fares.

Six of them cost between 55 and 80 percent of the ceiling fare, and the remaining super-cheap tickets cost from VND15,000 to 50 percent of the maximum fare.

Pacific Airlines had a makeover as a no-frills airline in February last year.

The state-run Vietnam Airlines too has submitted to the Vietnam Civil Airline Bureau for approval new airfares on domestic routes.

Budget Long Haul

Korea’s two largest airlines have joined the low-cost carrier business, with Korean Air having founded Air Korea and Asiana Airlines having bought a controlling stake in Pusan International Air, which has launched budget carrier Air Pusan.Jeju Air and Hansung Airlines, which have been operating domestic services for more than two years, both plan to launch international services in the second half of this year.

Even foreign budget airlines have turned their eyes to Korea’s domestic market. Tiger Airways, a budget affiliate of Singapore Airlines, is planning to advance into Korea by joining forces with the city of Incheon.

The Philippine budget airline Cebu Pacific will start operating a direct fly between Macao and the central Philippine city of Cebu in April, the company announced Monday. The Cebu-Macao flight is initially twice a week (Tuesday and Saturday) starting from April 5 and will expand into a four-times weekly (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday) service beginning from May 8, 2008.

On most days, one-way fare between Macao and Cebu starts from 1,499 pesos (37.48 U.S. dollars) exclusive of taxes and surcharges, the airline said.

“We are happy to provide our Filipino overseas workers in Macao a direct service to Cebu that will easily link them to the islands in the Visayas and Mindanao. Our very low fares will allow them to come home more often,” Lance Gokongwei, president of Cebu Pacific, said in a statement.

Founded in 1996, Cebu Pacific overtook the Philippine Airlines to become the number one airline in the Philippines last year in terms of passengers delivered on domestic routes. It flies to 12 international destinations including three Chinese mainland cities– Xiamen, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Yes Air Downunder looks like the newest airline to go long haul on a budget!

The airline is expected to go live later in 2008.

UK to Aussie and NZ on the cheap!

The popular Singapore to Kuala Lumpur route has been monopolised for the past thirty years by the two nations carriers, Singapore and Malaysia Airways.

As of today the budget airlines have been allowed a piece of the cake. Air Asia will fly twice daily from KL. While Tiger and Jetstar Asia will fly once a day from Singapore.

 Almost two and a half million people where carried over this route last year. Including the budget airlines there will now be 254 flights each week. 

The old average price for a return ticket was around $3200USD but the low-cost carriers will be offering prices from around $140USD.

 Welcome news for budget travellers and backpackers.