SQ have been prevented , by the previous Federal Gov'nt (with heavy lobbying by Q) from operating what could be a very lucrative market for them, ie. the Pacific route.
So how does one get around such an obstacle?
You start a lcc operation domestically and get your Australian AOC - doesn't matter too much if you run at a profit or even a small loss; how many $billions of cash reserves do SQ have? From what I can recollect it was about $8b way back in 2001 when they were trying to buy into Ansett.
Once one has the Australian AOC stitched up, that entitles the operator to an International AOC!!!
So my prediction is, that before too long we will see Tiger Pacific, a pseudo SQ operation from Oz on the Pacific route.
It will be a full service, bells and whistles (SQ) operation aimed squarely at Qantas and United.
Those crew in on the ground floor of Tiger, may well have a brilliant career ahead of them!!!!!!!!!!
Role on......
