 Print Article
|
And with it being the day budget flights between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur made their debut, the family made big savings for their flight to the Malaysian capital.
It would have set them back more than $8,800 to get everyone to KL on Singapore Airlines (SIA), but going on Tiger Airways' inaugural flight cost them just over $3,200.
Of the 21 travellers, three were under 10, so taking the bus or train was not an option, said Madam Chandra Maha Lakshmi, 31, a financial planner and mother of three-month-old Dayal, the youngest of the lot.
She said at the end of the 40-minute flight: 'Dayal did not even cry. If we had done this by coach, it would have been a back-breaking journey.'
Cheaper Singapore-KL air fares are here to stay, now that Tiger, Jetstar Asia and Malaysia's AirAsia are operating a total of four flights a day between the two cities. In December, all restrictions will be lifted so these carriers can run an unlimited number of services.
Until then, SIA and Malaysia Airlines (MAS), which have enjoyed a lucrative, 35-year stranglehold on the Singapore-KL route, will continue to dominate the market with 13 flights a day between them.
But liberalisation, although on a modest scale for a start, has already benefited the flying public.
Barring special promotional fares, SIA and MAS now charge $440 for a round trip, but the many low-cost travellers The Straits Times spoke to yesterday said they paid under $200. Some were even lucky enough to snag the 45,000 free seats that Tiger and AirAsia offered in the lead-up to the launch of services, so they paid just the airport taxes and surcharges.
Bank officer Koh Jia Wei, 26, paid just $113 for his return ticket on AirAsia.
He used to take the coach to KL for about $60, but decided to try out the budget carrier with his sister and his girlfriend because, he said, flying is 'safer, more comfortable and saves time'.
The total point-to-point travel time - getting to the airport, checking in, boarding, the flight itself, disembarking and getting to the final destination in KL - can take about five hours, which is almost the same time it takes to get to KL by coach, but fliers say it is less tiring to fly because the journey is broken up.
Everyone - travellers, the full-service carriers, the budget boys, the coach operators and airport authorities - agreed on one thing: With liberalisation, the Singapore-KL market will grow and this can only be good for all parties.
Right now, with just over 220 to-and-fro flights on the sector a week, passenger traffic between the two points hit 1.7 million last year.
Compare this with the 303 flights a week from Singapore to Bangkok, which bring 2.8 million visitors to the Thai capital, and the 389 Singapore-Jakarta flights which put 2.4 million visitors in the Indonesian capital.
To what extent the Singapore-KL pie will grow remains to be seen, but it is party time for now. The low-cost airlines have waited six long years for this opening-up to happen.
AirAsia's first flight out of KL yesterday morning was given a rousing send-off, with a brass band playing the Malaysian national anthem, bagpipe players, clowns and cheerleaders.
It arrived at Changi Airport Terminal 1 to a welcome ceremony planned by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore.
