Open skies, budget travel: Asian airlines soar

John Leahy, Airbus chief operating officer for customers, said that last year Asian budget carriers flew an average 1,800 kilometers (1,118 miles) per flight to 576 airports, up from 2001 when they averaged 700 kilometers to 48 airports.

“If you put that together, you can see a growth rate compounding of almost 40 percent a year,” he said.

Market liberalization is the other growth engine, with the opening of new routes between secondary destinations, especially in China, India and Southeast Asia, enabling more people to travel by air.

“Asian aviation will not reach its potential if the airlines are constrained to old ways of doing business,” said Giovanni Bisigniani, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

IATA estimates that the global aviation industry's losses will narrow from US$11 billion last year to 5.6 billion dollars in 2010.

Asia-Pacific airlines' losses are forecast to fall from US$3.4 billion in 2009 to US$700 million this year.

China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which have a combined population of 1.8 billion, are expected to conclude talks this year on a pact to further open up their aviation markets to each other.

Within ASEAN, the 10 member countries are looking at a deal allowing for maximum competition by 2015 as part of a regional free market.

Analysts and airline chiefs say Asia's fragmented geography and the lack of modern rail, road and sea links make airlines an attractive travel mode.

The region's population of over three billion people also means there are enough passengers for competitors to share, they add.

Randy Tinseth, vice president for marketing at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said opening up busy routes to more competition will make tickets even more affordable.

“When you have open skies, you have liberalization,” Tinseth told AFP at the airshow. “It opens up a level playing field.”

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