Hyderabad: After spreading its wings across Southeast Asia, Singapore-based low-cost airline Tigerair on Monday announced two partnerships with local players in India and east Asia — SpiceJet and China Airlines — to increase its traffic from two regions in Asia.
“India is one of our key markets and we are excited to expand our footprint here through this interline partnership with SpiceJet,” Tigerair Group chief commercial officer Alexander Knigge said here, after announcing the tie-up in India.
This marks yet another entry of a Singaporean airline into the Indian aviation market after AirAsia and Singapore Airlines, which have tied with Tata Sons. The deal would also help Spicejet to stave off the threat from its rival AirAsia to capturing a significant Indian traveller traffic.
In India, SpiceJet would connect its flights from 14 cities to Tigerair’s flight from the GMR Group-led Hyderabad airport, which would be used a hub to take the advantage of the city’s central location.
“As an introductory offer, SpiceJet and Tigerair are offering fare, starting from Rs 4,699 (one way) and return starting from Rs 9,998,” said Spice-Jet COO Sanjiv Kapoor.
The airport will provide a free porter service to facilitate the collection and transfer of checked-in baggage for passengers travelling on connecting flights. TigerAir will set up a joint venture with China Airlines, which could allow it to connect Singapore with east Asian destinations.
The triangular partnership could boost loadfactors of Tigerair and SpiceJet as India has a significant Korean presence and Japan is recently warming up to India by huge investments in strategic areas.
Apart from Spicejet and Tigerair, any incremental traffic from the deal would help the GMR Group as it would incre-ase passenger traffic at its Hyderabad airport, which has of late seen a decline traffic.
After the announcement, SpiceJet shares shoot up by 7.64 per cent, while Tiger Air-lines was up 3 per cent.
