, Singapore

Tiger Airways' low fares strategy working well: Phillip Securities Research

Below is the highlight from the research note of Phillip Securities Research on Tiger Airways May 23, 2011.

Keep the entry fare low & profit on the ancillaries
Tiger Airways’ strategy of keeping entry fares low, while profiting on the ancillaries looks to be working very well for them. Their low entry fares enabled them to consistently keep load factors high to reduce their unit fix cost. The key source of profitability for Tiger Airways really lies with its ability to entice customers to spend more on add-ons, which cost close to nothing to them. Average ancillary revenue is broadly on the uptrend staying high at S$22/pax for the quarter.

Fleet deployment across the network
Tiger Airways had disclosed that they intend to grow the fleet size across the Group to 35 aircrafts by end FY12. However, this net increase of 9 aircrafts from the current 26 could be deployed across anywhere across their network. Management had disclosed that they will likely keep the Australia fleet size at 10 aircrafts and will seek to deploy the rest of the net adds in Asia. We believe that a significant no. of aircrafts would be deployed to its JVs, as we estimate that Singapore would likely require 3-4 additional aircrafts to grow its capacity by 40%.

Growing as a Group
Tiger Airways used to be a much simpler business with two main subsidiaries of Tiger Airways Australia and Tiger Airways Singapore. However, the Group had disclosed plans to setup joint ventures in Thailand (Thai-Tiger: 39.0%), Philippines (SEAIR: 32.5%) & most recently Indonesia (Mandala: 33.0%). SEAIR had commenced operations with 2 aircrafts, while the commencement date of operations for the other two JVs are still not clear at the moment. We believe that these 3 JVs would collectively require the balance of the net increase in aircrafts to be delivered in FY12. We opine that this strategy of setting up partnerships across Asia would give them maximum flexibility of deploying their fleet to seek the best potential returns. However, we had not factored in potential earnings and investments into these JVs yet as earnings visibility are unclear at the moment.

Follow the link for more news on

Join Singapore Business Review community
A NOTE FROM SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW

If you've been wondering whether SBR could work for your company — yes, probably.

A lot of the companies we partner with started as readers. They'd been following our coverage for a while, saw their own customers and competitors in it, and eventually asked the obvious question: could we do something with you? The answer is usually yes. The shape of it depends on what you're trying to do.


The options are broader than most people assume — thought leadership articles, sponsored content, industry summits across Southeast Asia, regional awards programmes, podcasts, and media placements in print and digital. Some partners use one channel; most use a mix. We figure out the right combination by starting with your brief, not with our rate card.


So if the question has been on your mind, here's the easy way to ask it.

We'll tell you honestly whether we can help, and how. It's a better use of everyone's time.