Asia leads in low-cost, long-haul air travel globally

China poised to become key regional player.

Asia is setting new trends in long-haul, low-cost air travel, and China is poised to become a key regional player in the coming years, according to Generation X – Long Haul Low Cost Comes Of Age, a new Asia Pacific air travel report by OAG Aviation Worldwide.

According to a release from OAG, in the last decade, South East Asian low-cost carriers (LCCs) led by Malaysia-based AirAsia have remodelled the air travel map in the Asia Pacific region.

Now, LCCs are seeking to expand their route networks to better connect the rapidly growing travel markets of South East Asia and North East Asia, plus South Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

The LCC sector in Asia is experiencing strong growth with massive potential demand supported by fast-growing economies and rising demand for intra-regional travel. Although low-cost air travel originated in Europe and North America to connect destinations typically within four hours’ flying time, Asian LCCs are adapting the model for locations up to eight hours apart.

Here's more from OAG:

This enables cost-conscious Asian travellers to fly to new destinations for which flights were either previously unavailable or were priced too high.

The Asia Pacific air market continued to evolve, and although LCC growth has been slow in China it will be pivotal to the future development of the sector.

OAG analysed the region’s top 20 country pair markets for total seat capacity between June 2010 and June 2014 – and China features in eight of the fastest growing routes.

The average annual growth in seat capacity between Australia and China was 11.4%, while 20% capacity growth was recorded between China and Thailand.

Asia’s pioneering low-cost, long-haul carriers include AirAsia X, Jetstar Airways, Jetstar Asia and Scoot. Soon to join them will be Indonesia AirAsia X, Thai AirAsia X and NokScoot, while China’s Spring Airlines and Cebu Pacific from the Philippines are beginning to expand their low-cost, long-haul flight networks.

More airlines seem likely to follow in the coming years as Asia’s air market expands further.

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