How will low cost #airlines in South East #Asia fare for the rest of the year?

How will low cost #airlines in South East #Asia fare for the rest of the year?

Low cost airlines in South East Asia are being pegged to outperform full service airlines, thanks to the upcoming Christmas and New Year holiday season. In June alone, low cost carriers witnessed a 25% growth in passenger traffic, compared with a meagre 6% growth for full service airlines. Another factor that has been used to support this hypothesis is that the penetration levels achieved by South East Asian LCCs still trails the penetration levels in Europe and the US.

As such, industry experts expect the region’s top LCCs Jetstar, AirAsia and Tiger Airways to take full advantage of the holiday season. Among the three, Jetstar is expected to turn in a better show than the other two, after it posted a 44% growth in passenger traffic in 2010. The LCC’s growth strategy of serving 60 destinations across 17 countries with 3,000 weekly flights only supports these predictions.

However, Jetstar will not have a smooth path as its expansion will mean that it will lock horns with various existing and new players in its expansion markets. It will have to compete with a new budget carrier from Singapore Airlines and the new joint venture between Air Asia and ANA. In spite of this, analysts do not see any competition related problems for the time being, as they think the current market environment can handle a fair number of LCCs.

Experts suggest budget carriers to not to limit their strategy to low prices, but to improve their customer loyalty with other things like good service and punctuality.

Will Jetstar fulfil the predictions? To know more about the future of low cost airlines visit World Low Cost Airlines Congress.