Eight Asian-Pacific LCCs join forces to create world’s largest alliance – Value Alliance

Up until now low cost carriers in the Asia Pacific region have suffered from a disparity in pricing and a lack of a network brand. Now it will be possible to book the best available air fares from any of the Value Alliance members websites. With a surge in popularity of air travel with the middle classes, many of who are travelling by air for the first time, no-frills airlines which do not offer free meals or in-flight entertainment are very much in demand.
The eight operators who have come together to form the world’s largest low-cost carrier alliance include Singapore Airlines’ medium- to long-haul budget wing Scoot, the Philippines’ Cebu Pacific, South Korea’s Jeju Air, Thailand’s Nok Air and NokScoot, Tigerair Singapore, Tigerair Australia and Japan’s Vanilla Air. However, there are a few notable exceptions, including South-Est Asia’s biggest low-budget carrier – Malaysia’s AirAsia, Quantas Airways’ Jetstar Group of Australia, and India’s IndiGo. It is suspected they are simply playing a waiting game before their likely joining of the alliance if it is seen to achieve what it has set out to do.
The alliance is now capable of serving 160 destinations, has a combined fleet of 176 aircraft, and last year they served over 47 million passengers from 17 hubs. In an announcement from Singapore on Monday of this week, the alliance confirmed that “Customers will be able to view, select and book the best-available airfares on flights from any of the airlines in a single transaction, directly from each partner website.”
Lance Gokongwei, president and chief executive of Cebu Pacific, said that “Value Alliance is a clear example of how (budget airlines) can accomplish more by working together than we could do individually.”
Shukor Yusof, the founder of Malaysia-based aviation consultancy Endau Analytics, indicated that the alliance would be more for the benefit of the airlines than the passengers, saying, “The idea would be to align airfares so that there will not be too much disparity between the different discount carriers… I suspect that no longer will you be able to get airfares that cost less than a jug of beer.”