TIGER AIRWAYS Singapore Pte Ltd. will start flying out of Davao in November, the firm yesterday said in a statement.
The airline said it will be offering direct flights from the Mindanao province to Singapore three times a week: on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays.
This is on top of the budget carrier’s existing flight from Manila and Cebu.
“Tiger [Airways Singapore] will fly to the business and tourism hub of southern Philippines three times a week… The first flight to Davao takes off on Nov. 1,” the carrier said.
“We are excited to add Davao to our growing portfolio of exciting destinations,” Stewart Adams, managing director of Tiger Airways Singapore, said in the statement.
“As Singapore’s leading low-cost carrier, Tiger Airways is committed to providing customers the lowest airfares on safe and convenient point-to-point air travel, offering travelers low fares, more savings and more choices,” Mr. Adams added in the statement.
The route is currently served by Singapore Airlines’ SilkAir, through a thrice weekly direct flights and twice weekly flights via Cebu.
Tiger Airways Singapore’s fleet will comprise of 20 Airbus A320 by March 2012 from only 14 in March this year.
The airline said in a previous statement that the additional capacity will allow it to introduce new services, including the flights to Davao.
Such an increase in fleet size will also allow the carrier to increase frequencies for existing routes, Tiger Airways had said.
Local carrier South East Asian Airlines (Seair) sealed a deal with Tiger Airways last year for the lease of two Airbus aircraft and an online marketing arrangement.
Seair operates flights between Clark, Pampanga to Hong Kong, Clark to Macau and Clark to Singapore.
Seair last month has filed a petition to operate flights between Clark and points in Malaysia, a matter which has not yet been resolved by the Civil Aeronautics Board.
In a related development, Cebu Air, Inc. said it was not planning to offer international flights out of Davao in the near future even as rival carriers were doing so.
“We have no plans of any [international direct flights from Davao] as of now,” said Michelle Eve A. de Guzman, Cebu Pacific’s corporate communication specialist.
The Gokongwei-led budget carrier, however, will increase its Davao to Manila flights to seven times daily from the current six effective Oct. 1.
This will be further increased to eight times daily starting Oct. 7.
The airline will also boost its Davao-Cebu service through additional four flights weekly starting Oct. 14. There are currently five flights daily from here to Cebu.
Data provided by the carrier showed the airline flew the most number of passengers to and from Davao in the second quarter, gaining 44.4% of the local market.
It flew 318,694 passengers during that period.
Ms. de Guzman said that Cebu Pacific operated with an 85% load factor in the second quarter, which she attributed to their discounts and promotions.
The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation said that Cebu Pacific offers the most number of seats to, from and within the Philippines, based on the figures on seats per week from Aug. 22 to 28, 2011.
From April to June this year, Cebu Pacific claims to have carried over 3.1 million passengers after surpassing the one million monthly passenger mark for April and May.
“We are on track with our annual target of 12 million passengers (this year),” Ms. de Guzman said.
Ma. Lourdes A. Monteverde, president of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc., said two other airlines, AirAsia and Lion Air, are also coming over particularly after President Aquino’s pronouncement to include Davao City as a secondary gateway under an open skies policy regime.
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By: Kathleen A. Martin and Joel B. Escovilla
Source: Business World, Aug. 31, 2011
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