Jetstar tackles a Tiger
By Steve Creedy
February 08, 2007 12:00am
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JETSTAR will add planes to its domestic fleet and expand operations in Western Australia amid speculation of a home-turf challenge from Singapore-backed Tiger Airways.
The Qantas offshoot has also targeted Korea and Taiwan as its next overseas destinations and has not ruled out more wide-body aircraft to service the routes before the arrival of its first Boeing 787s next year.
Tiger is expected to announce an Australian investment tomorrow, possibly involving a link with Perth-based Skywest Airlines that would see Tiger-branded A320s operating from the Western Australian capital.
Aviation sources speculated yesterday that Tiger would use Skywest to put Airbus A320s on the Australian market, amid rumours it was seeking to operate from Perth to the eastern states as well as on the "golden triangle" of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.
If that proves correct, the airline will face more than a bigger Jetstar presence: Qantas is considering transferring more Boeing 747-300 jumbo jets to its Sydney-Perth Cityflyer service.
Singapore Airlines owns 49 per cent of Tiger and the Singapore Government's investment arm, Temasek Holdings, has 11 per cent. Other shareholders include US private investment firm Indigo Partners and Ryanair's Tony Ryan.
Jetstar chief executive Alan Joyce said his airline had been talking for some time with the Western Australian Government about basing aircraft there, and the expansion was unrelated to moves by Tiger.
"We know that we have to grow past 23 (aircraft) and the business is performing fairly well as the results tomorrow will show," Mr Joyce said.
"It's very clear that this year we've paused because of the long-haul growth.
"Short-haul has come back on the radar screen."
Mr Joyce said potential sources for new aircraft included three that were sub-let to Jetstar Asia (and due back at year's end) and second-hand planes.
He said opportunities in short-haul included growth on domestic routes and establishing international services.
"Perth is a very good example of that, where the A320 has the range to get to a lot of South-East Asian destinations," he said.
"And the third opportunity is really the Tasman.
"Our Christchurch operations are really going very, very well and domestic New Zealand and extra flying across the Tasman fall into a category we would want to look at as well."
Tiger last month announced it would start four flights a week from Perth to Singapore and chief executive Tony Davis is on the board of Skywest's parent, Advent Holdings.
Mr Davis last month told Singaporean media that some of his carrier's new A320s would go to an unnamed joint venture in the region.
He said the new venture would be more comprehensive than a previous agreement with Philippines-based carrier SEair, but that the Singaporean carrier was "not interested in investing lots of money to buy an existing airline".
Tiger provided SEair with two new A320 aircraft as well as technical and operational experience to operate Tiger-branded flights from a new hub at Clark Field in the Philippines.
cheers
dijon moutard
