Air Asia which is the largest low-cost airline group in Asia is slowly losing its ground to nearby rivals-Lion Air. According to Centre for Aviation (CAPA), Lion Air currently holds 35% of Southeast Asia’s capacity thanks to its extensive Indonesia domestic market. While, Air Asia has a 32% market share in the region with a mere 2% of the Indonesia domestic market. The group has a more diverse international and domestic network that it’s other rivals across the region in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Singapore. In terms of total capacity in the Asia-Pacific region, Air Asia’s 16% is still ahead of Lion Air’s 15%.
Lion Air’s main operation is the Indonesia domestic market. The airline group’s 96% capacity is allocated to the Indonesia domestic market because of the rapid increase of the country’s middle class group together with the country’s island demographic. Lion Air including subsidiaries Wings Air and Batik Air has nearly 50% of Indonesia’s domestic market. Lion Air and full-service subsidiary-Batik Air operates the Boeing 737-800 and -900ER aircrafts for most of its operations while regional carrier-Wings Air operates ATR 72 regional aircrafts.
On 18 March 2013, the carrier announced a mega-deal with Airbus signing a total of 234 Airbus 320 family aircrafts. Together with its 300 Boeing 737s that the airline currently operates and orders, the airline group could have up to 600 both Airbus and Boeing narrow bodies aircraft by 2028. Out of the 600 aircrafts order, it is likely half of the orders will be allocated to the ever-growing Indonesian market. Although the demand of air travel keeps increasing for the country, Indonesia faces poor air safety issues and poor airport facilities. These could possibly deter the expansion plans of Lion Air in Indonesia.
On the other hand, Air Asia together with its affiliates still decides to pursue a single type aircraft’s strategy by having an all-Airbus fleet. The group is expected to have a total of 475 Airbus 320 aircrafts by 2026, operating subsidiaries at Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Indonesia and Japan with the 180-seater Airbus 320 to destinations around the region.
Currently the largest long-haul LCC carrier and Air Asia’s long-haul subsidiary-Air Asia X operates Airbus 330-300 aircrafts to destinations from Kuala Lumpur that having a flying time of more than 4 hours. Last year, the carrier suspended their flights into London and Paris and also the unprofitable Indian routes of Mumbai and Dehli. Instead, the airline focuses on flights around the Asia-Pacific region that can be reached between 4-8 hours. Singapore’s Scoot and Jetstar are the main rivals to Air Asia X’s long-haul business. But with Malindo introducing flights to India and Norwegian’s long-haul flight from Europe to Asia, Air Asia X might be tempted to reinstate the flights, possibly with the 10 Airbus 350-900XWB aircrafts that scheduled to join the fleet in 2016.
This year, Lion Air had started moved into Air Asia’s fortress in Malaysia by setting up Malindo Air. The airline is a joint venture between Lion Air and National Aerospace and Defence Industries (NADI) of Malaysia. The carrier currently operates services to domestic destinations in Malaysia with Boeing 737-900ER aircrafts. Malindo also has turboprop services out of Subang and competes directly with the sister airline of Malaysia Airlines-Firefly. The initial idea of the Malindo is to make Kuala Lumpur a transfer hub for all parts of Indonesia to destinations around Asia by avoiding the congested Jakarta hub. The carrier plans to fly to India and Bangladesh so that their aircraft is fully utilized rather than sitting on the tarmac for the whole night. Apart from Malaysia, Lion Air is rumored to be interested to enter the Thailand market which is hugely dominated by the Thailand’s national carrier-Thai Airways and Air Asia.
Air Asia currently is in the process of setting up its low-cost venture in India. India is always a tricky market because of its high cost and tight regulations enforced by the government. All airlines except for IndiGo recorded losses for last year. One of India’s major carrier-Kingfisher Airlines’ license is even suspended by the India government. While Air Asia’s business in Japan suffered a hiccup as Air Asia has announced that they would end their partnership with All Nippon Airways (ANA) in their Japan venture. It’s unclear what Air Asia’s future plans are, but it is likely the carrier will scout for a new partner in Japan.
Jetstar Group is the next airline group nearest to the leading two in terms of fleet and route networks. Founded by Australia’s national carrier-Qantas Airways, the carrier operates bases in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Vietnam and more recently Japan. Jetstar’s partnership with China Eastern Airlines to set up Jetstar Hong Kong is expected to take to the skies this year end. In terms of passenger size and fleet, Jetstar is behind both Lion Air and Air Asia. The group has around 11% of the total LCC capacity in Asia-Pacific, but only 4% of capacity in the competitive South-East Asia market.
With the Indonesia aviation market potentially achieving double-digit growth each year, the title “The largest carrier in Asia Pacific” is still pretty much at stake. Together with enormous growth opportunity in countries like Myammar, Vietnam, India and China, the skies could belong to anybody’s. Expanding their own market is part of the fundamentals of business corporations, but safety is an even more important component in aviation by complying with international standard rules, providing adequate training to pilots and cabin crews and also extensive maintenance checks on their aircrafts.
By,
Zhe Xu
23th July 2013
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