Air Asia, Virgin, EASY JET plan global pact for long-haul flights: report

just been reading reports for long haul budget airline that might be starting up, might bring fares down in the future .
http://news.sawf.org/Business/31422.aspx this is the website ,just wondering what peoples opinions are on this, and may this be an option for us in the future even if we had to get a separate flight from Malaysia to bkk .

hong Kong seem to have cheap flights through oasis and if this sort of thing happened in Thailand or close enough, it could possible have a high impact on visitor numbers to Thailand ,might even attract people that would normally not consider this type of holiday due to cost restraints .

quote:

Originally posted by Biowan:
hong kong seem to have cheap flights through oasis and if this sort of thing happaend in Thailand or close enough, it could possible have a high impact on visitor numbers to Thailnd ,might even attract people that would normaly not consider this type of holiday due to cost restraints .

You mean even more Chavs?

I see your point Henson ,but it would be nice if people who where not that well off had a chance to see a different culture as apposed to going to Spain and eating fish and chips and demanding an English breakfast .Although I certainly would not wont yobs going .

I for one would just love to be able to fly to Thailand cheaper as I love the place .

A Press conference has been called for Friday when Virgin/Easyjet/AirAsia will announce flights will commence early spring 2007 from Manchester to Kuala Lumpar and Amritsar (India) The Far East hub being Kuala Lumpar with connectings flights to many Far East destinations incl Bangkok. Early /late bookings to Bangkok of £100/£400 could be in the pipeline. How will Emirates/Etihad/Qatar respond ?
Looks like Thai Airways planned operations ex Manchester will again be delayed ?

i dont think the price of the flight will make any difference whatsoever to who goes to Thailand. Those that are happy going to Benidorm, Magalluf et al will continue to do so.
I have argued for quite some time now that, when you take into account the price of hotel, food, drink etc there is very little difference in pricing a holiday to eg Greece and Thailand

Agreed...even a package to Phuket now costs the same as a holiday to Tenerife...

Personally, I don't see how the fare can become cheaper...it is nearly 6,000 miles to Bangkok after all.


Nick

quote:

Personally, I don't see how the fare can become cheaper...it is nearly 6,000 miles to Bangkok after all.

Look at the prices available to LA or San Francisco (5500 miles) at certain times of the year.

It's down to supply and demand.

quote:

Originally posted by Biowan:
I see your point Henson ,but it would be nice if people who where not that well off had a chance to see a different culture as apposed to going to Spain and eating fish and chips and demanding an English breakfast .Although I certainly would not wont yobs going .

I for one would just love to be able to fly to Thailand cheaper as I love the place .

fish and chips,english breakfasts,sounds like pattaya to me, incidently easyjet attempted to form a partnership with oasis hk,but they couldnt agree on baggage handling charges.

That is good point lucky made about La ,I just did a search for a flight and my first search came in at just under 300, so there is no reason that they could not do the same for Thailand ,I know it does come down to supply and demand .However this is a new budget type airline we are talking about, so there would be other cost cutting measures .No doubt a lot of the staff would be Asian that is one cost cutting measure already in there wage and personally if not serving alcohol for free on the flight gave me a hundred pound off,well a price worth paying .Kuwait airlines are always cheap partly because they do not have to give away free alcohol, and the fact the use mostly cheap migrant staff, oh and possibly the fact that they or not very good .

Don't get too excited, I've just read this on BBC news

Well - we will just have to wait.

I was hoping that the new Bangkok airport would increase competition with KL, Singapore and Hong Kong as Long Haul hubs and push prices more in "our" favour

-Skippy

i think bkk is not likely to increase its competitiveness until it can handle more than the current annual limit of 45 million passengers, since it's already running at close to capacity.

ian.

quote:

Originally posted by ian canton:
i think bkk is ... ... ... already running at close to capacity.

Even at the new airport

yes, 45 million isn't much of an increase from don muang's 38 million. that's why there were plans for a separate low-cost carrier terminal at suvarnabhumi to be built immediately (now on hold while existing faults are rectified).

ian.

With the current political situation in thailand they will not need extra capcity .

Further update here

Conrad

The flights are potentially going to KL which has its own charms. Beer is,nt up to much, charming people who speak english.

I see these reports and build up my hopes of cheaper flight prices all round and then watch the news and see reports on how "wicked" the airlines are in bringing us into another ice age with their pollution and damage to the environment and my hopes are all but dashed! Seems like the solution to an Ice Age is to tax us so much that we stay in our homes watching empty planes (apart from first class passengers, the only ones who will be able to afford to pay) travelling over our heads, ah, peace of mind at last

the aircraft contribution to carbon dioxide is in the single percentage figures.

it seems to be politically easier to tax air passengers, who often cannot reasonably use any other method of transport, than to face the real problem: people using private cars instead of buses or trains.

ian.