Tiger Begins to Ramp up India Services

Singapore Low Cost Carrier Tiger Airways is planning to start flights to Trivandrum from Singapore.

Tiger Airways is planning to launch Trivandrum from the 2^nd November thrice weekly with an A320 aircraft. Trivandrum is the capital of Kerala State located on the southwestern tip of India. The service will target both the migrant traffic as well as the inbound leisure market of Singaporean's want to visit the state of Kerala with attractions such as Houseboat tours on the Backwaters and the Tea Plantations.

Tiger Airways has publically stated its intentions to build its presence in India. The carrier currently operates to Chennai (11 weekly) and Bangalore (5 weekly), according to Flightbase May 3^rd to 9^th. Trivandrum will be the carrier's third destination in India.

Singapore - India is not an open skies market there are traffic rights allocated on the main metro airports (BOM, DEL, BLR, HYD, CCU), but we believe that for the secondary airports like Trivandrum, it's unrestricted access.

Singapore Airlines Dominance of India

The service will compete directly with Singapore Airlines regional franchise carrier Silk Air which operates a thrice weekly with an A319 and A320. Singapore Airlines operates a dual brand strategy in India, with both Singapore Airlines and Silk Air operating to 10 markets in India, four of which are operated by Silk Air, Coimbatore x 7 (CJB), Kochi x 3 (COK), Hyderabad x 7 (HYD) and Trivandrum x 3 (TRV). Singapore Airlines operates a 777 into India on the thicker routes, but through Silk Air can serve the smaller markets with the A319s and A320s. The other six markets Singapore Airlines operates with it's own aircraft are: Ahmedabad x 2 (AMD), Bangalore x 7 (BLR), Mumbai x 14 (BOM), Kolkata x 4 (CCU), Delhi x 11 (DEL) and Chennai x 7 (MAA), all frequencies are weekly for the week 3^rd - 9^th May and according to Flightbase. Singapore Airlines has steadily been increasing frequency in India, for instance with Hyderabad increasing from 5 to 7 weekly, however the carrier did cancel Amritsar last year.

Tiger will not be afraid of competing with Singapore Airlines, with a lower cost base the carrier will target the VFR traffic and price sensitive leisure market, as well as its offline connecting passengers from South East Asia and even Perth Australia. Tiger will understand the level at which they can stimulate the market by the impact they have had on Chennai and Bangalore routes where the capacity in both market has increased 180% and 21% between May 2007 and May 2009. On both Chennai and Bangalore there are many Singaporean expats & business links, in general the corporate traffic will use Singapore Airlines, but Tiger will attract personal travel, as well as SMEs.

In targeting other Indian markets, Tiger will want to focus on the more southern Indian points with shorter sector lengths, from Singapore in a 5 hour range includes all markets south and including Hyderabad. This means that Hyderabad, Coimbatore and Kochi must all be targets for Tiger despite already being served by Singapore Airlines and Silk Air.

Is Tiger Duplicating the Air Asia India Network?

In targeting India from South East Asia, Tiger is ensuring it is getting a valuable presence into the India market at the same time as Air Asia is targeting India. Air Asia currently serves Mumbai, Kolkata, Kochi, Trivandrum, Tiruchirappalli and Chennai (from Penang), with the exception of "Trichy" all of these were highlighted above as being served by Singapore Airlines. Trichy would be an obvious market given that Tiger wants to target secondary markets and airports wherever possible. Below is a comparison of the Air Asia Group presence in India versus Tiger:

In comparing the Malaysia and Singapore Indian migrant links, there are some differences, which will influence the respective networks of Air Asia and Tiger Airways. In Malaysia, the majority of Indians are originally from Tamil Nadu state (Chennai & Trichy) whereas in Singapore, besides Tamil Nadu, there are many Indian's from Kerala state (Trivandrum) and the northern states, hence Tiger's decision on Trivandrum.

Tiger Airways will no doubt duplicate Air Asia, but Tiger does have an advantage that the A320s have a better range than Air Asia's narrowbodies, due to ETOPS and higher performance engines. AirAsia eventually had to invest in equipping few aircraft with ETOPS and higher performance engines, despite the complexity it has added to their Indian operation. Without ETOPs Air Asia would be relying on the diversion airport of Port Blair which only operates very short hours, creating problems for evening flights from KUL. Air Asia has creatively got round its operational difficulties and has launched a very successful India network, Trichy its first destination has been a remarkable success, with the carrier doubling frequency in its second year. Tiger will be looking to copy this success.

Tiger Airways currently has a fleet of 19 A320s (also including 1 leased A319). The carrier plans for its fleet to reach 68 in 2015. The carrier has 7 new aircraft being delivered in 2010 and a further 7 deliveries in 2011. The carrier is currently seeking proposals from Indian and Chinese airports through Route Exchange on the Routesonline website.