Budget Airline Blog

Jetstar, the Australian and Asian based very budget, cheap and uncheerful airline, marked the International Day of Disabled Persons by refusing to let a blind passenger board a domestic flight with her guide dog.

Glen Bracegirdle and Kathryn Beaton, a blind couple, were attempting to board a flight out of Melbourne, when Jetstar staff told Ms Beaton that she was not allowed to board her guide dog – even though the airline’s own policy permits “seeing dogs” to fly.

When the couple approached the Jetstar check-in counter with Prince, Ms Beaton’s four-year-old black labrador guide dog, the clerk on duty shouted at them: “No dogs, no dogs, no dogs.”

Nice on Jetstar!

Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group is to fund Australian budget airline Virgin Blue through its financial woes. The carrier has admitted to fears of full-year losses

The Virgin Group, who own 25.5 per cent of Virgin Blue, has committed to buying 305 million further shares in the company. Branson aims to inject £40m to help out the carrier, which is predicting losses of over £80m for this financial year.

Whilst Virgin Blue, Australia’s second-largest airline, continues to make profits from its short-haul flights, where their market share has increased to 30 per cent, their long-haul wing, V Australia has been hit hard by the recession, making massive losses.

In an attempt to raise capital, the airline has also released heavily discounted shares, raising $133 million (AUD) so far from institutional investors, with an additional $98 million expected from retail investors.

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

The 5th annual Asia Pacific Low-Cost Airline Congress saw some interesting revelations about two of our budget international airlines and their plans for the future.

In coming months and years Jetstar Air and Virgin Air will look to expanding their budget services internationally on long-haul routes which are yet to see low-cost models applied.

But for the short term, both carriers are looking at different challenges to make the long-haul services viable.

For Jetstar Australia’s expansion into Europe, it’s the delays of the Dreamliners which have put a crimp in their plans.  But they continue to retain the stance that the delays won’t affect them too much.