For more than 20 years, Jetstar Asia's silver and orange planes have been a regular sight on the tarmac at Singapore airport. Not for much longer. The news came as a surprise to all observers of air transport in Asia. The Australian airline Qantas has just announced that its low-cost subsidiary will cease trading on 31 July this year.
Qantas explains that the company is sinking into losses due to soaring operating costs since the Covid crisis. According to Vanessa Hudson, CEO of the Qantas group, all operating costs have risen by 200% in just a few years, jeopardising the future of the low-cost carrier. For the current financial year, the company was expecting to incur a loss of nearly 24 million euros (35 million in S$). In all, Jetstar Asia has only been profitable for six financial years.
Jetstar Asia began operations in Singapore in December 2004. Last year, the company carried over 2.3 million passengers on its network from its base in Singapore. This represented a 3% market share of the 67.7 million passengers recorded on the Singapore route.Changi airport. Its passenger traffic was nevertheless halved compared with 2019. Some experts believe that the airline's move from terminal 2 - where Qantas operates - to terminal 4 in 2023 has caused it to lose passengers. The change of terminal has made it more difficult to make connections with its parent company.
Some fifteen airlines from Singapore
This June, it is making the most of 180 weekly flights to 15 destinations Australia (Broome), China (Wuxi), Indonesia (Bali, Jakarta, Labuan Bajo, Medan and Surabaya), Japan (Okinawa), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur and Penang), the Philippines (Manila), Sri Lanka (Colombo) and Thailand (Bangkok, Krabi and Phuket). In the past, the company has landed in Burma, Cambodia, Taiwan and Vietnam. It also offered a codeshare with Air France.
According to the Qantas press release, frequencies will be gradually reduced until flights are completely suspended on 31 July. Thehe third low-cost airline to disappear from Singapore. Jetstar Asia merged shortly after its debut with Singaporean carrier Valuair, while Tiger Air was absorbed by Scoot, the low-cost subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, in 2017.
The disappearance of Jetstar Asia could precipitate the creation of a Singaporean subsidiary by low-cost giant AirAsia. Through its subsidiaries, the latter already operates flights to around ten destinations. For many years, the airline has made no secret of its ambitions to have its own Singapore-based airline.
The disposal of Jetstar Asia's activities has no impact on flights operated by Qantas' two other subsidiaries, Jetstar Airways in Australia and Jetstar Japan. Qantas also wants to strengthen Jetstar Airways' international network from Australia and New Zealand. The 13 Airbus A320 aircraft operated by its Singapore subsidiary will support this strategic change.
