AirAsia Plans to Launch Low-Cost Airline in Cambodia
- armchairlawyer
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Re: AirAsia Plans to Launch Low-Cost Airline in Cambodia
Air Asia's business model is Now everyone can fly.phuketrichard wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2023 12:45 pm why would they lower passport fees? if someone can afford to travel a $100 ( over 10 years) surely wont stop travel>
I just paid $130 for my new US passport ( took 6 weeks)
Comparison;
china $18
Turkey $202
Australia $218
France $102
Israel $86
Japan $115
Philippines $20
Thailand $43
Russsia $70
UK $117 ( large book) if ur over 94 its FREE!!!!
Cambodia $100 ( unless u want it faster
Cuban $450 ( good for 6 years) and every 2 years another $200 MOST expensive
Their new venture in Cambodia depends on getting a lot of new flyers into their planes.
Most Khmer do not own a passport and have no intention of paying $100+ to get one.
If it was $20 they might, assuming low fares as well.
The international comparisons are not relevant to my point but btw:
The UK passpoirt costs £82.50 ($104 at curren tFX rates). Child passport costs $67.
In Vietnam the cost is $7.
In practice the Cambodian one costs at least $110 once you include the extras, $90 for the 5 year child one.
I agree the authorities have little reason to reduce the fees. The current fee levels produce a good revenue over the cost of processing, and they would rather Khmers spend their holidays inside Cambodia to help the local economy and the nation's balance of payments. But this all leaves Air Asia high and dry (forgive the pun).
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Re: AirAsia Plans to Launch Low-Cost Airline in Cambodia
Air asia moto has been for a long time, "now everyone can fly"
i still disagree, the cost of a passport ( valid for 10 years) vs the cost of a vacation is so dam small>>>
just the flight to Bangkok is $100+ return and than add on hotel's, taxis, food etc etc.
Why would any Khmer own a passport unless they had the $$$ to use it?
i still disagree, the cost of a passport ( valid for 10 years) vs the cost of a vacation is so dam small>>>
just the flight to Bangkok is $100+ return and than add on hotel's, taxis, food etc etc.
Why would any Khmer own a passport unless they had the $$$ to use it?
In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. HST
Re: AirAsia Plans to Launch Low-Cost Airline in Cambodia
A passport will cost at least 100$ in fees, a trip to Phnom Penh to apply, a trip back home, a trip to Phnom Penh to collect and another trip back home. For all.of those not living in Phnom Penh applying for a passport isn't a simple two hour experience.phuketrichard wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2023 1:30 pm Air asia moto has been for a long time, "now everyone can fly"
i still disagree, the cost of a passport ( valid for 10 years) vs the cost of a vacation is so dam small>>>
just the flight to Bangkok is $100+ return and than add on hotel's, taxis, food etc etc.
Why would any Khmer own a passport unless they had the $$$ to use it?
Loads of people live within a reasonable distance of Vietnam, Laos or Thailand and don't need to fly to cross a border but can have a rather cheap cross border holliday if they would have a passport. Unfortunately the competent authorities clearly make the application more difficult than it could be.
- Fridaywithmateo
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Re: AirAsia Plans to Launch Low-Cost Airline in Cambodia
Just got my Khmer wife her first Khmer passport in October .., I think it cost about $160 usd and took 21 days ... spent couple hours at the passport office and it was pretty smooth. Just had to make a separate trip to get additional color copies of her documents.armchairlawyer wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2023 1:15 pmAir Asia's business model is Now everyone can fly.phuketrichard wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2023 12:45 pm why would they lower passport fees? if someone can afford to travel a $100 ( over 10 years) surely wont stop travel>
I just paid $130 for my new US passport ( took 6 weeks)
Comparison;
china $18
Turkey $202
Australia $218
France $102
Israel $86
Japan $115
Philippines $20
Thailand $43
Russsia $70
UK $117 ( large book) if ur over 94 its FREE!!!!
Cambodia $100 ( unless u want it faster
Cuban $450 ( good for 6 years) and every 2 years another $200 MOST expensive
Their new venture in Cambodia depends on getting a lot of new flyers into their planes.
Most Khmer do not own a passport and have no intention of paying $100+ to get one.
If it was $20 they might, assuming low fares as well.
The international comparisons are not relevant to my point but btw:
The UK passpoirt costs £82.50 ($104 at curren tFX rates). Child passport costs $67.
In Vietnam the cost is $7.
In practice the Cambodian one costs at least $110 once you include the extras, $90 for the 5 year child one.
I agree the authorities have little reason to reduce the fees. The current fee levels produce a good revenue over the cost of processing, and they would rather Khmers spend their holidays inside Cambodia to help the local economy and the nation's balance of payments. But this all leaves Air Asia high and dry (forgive the pun).
Re: AirAsia Plans to Launch Low-Cost Airline in Cambodia
armchairlawyer wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2023 12:22 pmI haven't seen any news on this. The end of 2023 is nigh.armchairlawyer wrote: ↑Tue Oct 17, 2023 7:13 pm https://aviationweek.com/air-transport/ ... s-year-end
AirAsia plans to begin flights through its new Cambodian air operator’s certificate (AOC) by the end of 2023, subject to securing the two Airbus A320s that will initially operate from the capital Phnom Penh.
Dilhan Haradasa, AirAsia Group head of network and regulatory affairs, spoke about Cambodia operation plans on the sidelines of the Routes World conference. “We’ll be starting in Phnom Penh, but we hope to grow Sihanoukville and Siam Reap as well. It will be ASEAN region, and we will be concentrating on domestic as well,” he said.
Speaking about regional trends during an earlier panel discussion, Haradasa said, “I think India’s going to be the new global dominant aviation player coming up in the next five years. This year has changed a lot. India has become a growth market for Southeast Asia. We’ve also seen connecting markets, east connectivity contributing to our growth.”
In India and Australia, AirAsia is continuing to look at opportunities to expand routes to secondary airports that stand outside bilateral agreements. “We will continue to look at secondary ports that are outside the bilateral, which are allowable,” Haradasa said. “That’s the only way we can grow at the moment, so we’ll continue to explore that. China hasn’t bounced back as we expected so we’ll have to continue to look at India as a growth market.”
AirAsia is also looking for growth to secondary Australian airports—in particular, from Indonesia. “That doesn’t mean we don’t fly from Malaysia either,” he said. “But we want to try to minimize ultra-long-haul narrowbody flying because of the fuel issue.”
Haradasa said increased airport charges were an issue. “Especially in a low-cost market model, it’s becoming quite expensive. Now we have to be a lot more careful in our route selection,” Haradasa said. “Private airlines were not safeguarded during the pandemic. It’s very important we protect our cashflows.”
Similarly no news on the mooted reduction in passport fees, which I believe is essential for Air Asia's project in Cambodia.
We’ll be starting in Phnom Penh, but we hope to grow Sihanoukville and Siam Reap as well. It will be ASEAN region, and we will be concentrating on domestic as well,
Phnom Penh to where? What can we be looking forward to? Maybe Philippines? Vietnam? They both need decent connections. How about another crack at Penang or Phuket?
What domestic routes would they try? SNK is now well served by road and SAI is an hour from the city so you might as well get a taxi and save $100's for the couple of hours you will save, especially if you are paying for others to travel.
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Re: AirAsia Plans to Launch Low-Cost Airline in Cambodia
They're starting with flights from PP to BKK and to KL. Most likely connections to India and China will be launched next year as well. They could add Phuket, but probably not Penang anytime soon.Doc67 wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2023 2:50 pmarmchairlawyer wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2023 12:22 pmI haven't seen any news on this. The end of 2023 is nigh.armchairlawyer wrote: ↑Tue Oct 17, 2023 7:13 pm https://aviationweek.com/air-transport/ ... s-year-end
AirAsia plans to begin flights through its new Cambodian air operator’s certificate (AOC) by the end of 2023, subject to securing the two Airbus A320s that will initially operate from the capital Phnom Penh.
Dilhan Haradasa, AirAsia Group head of network and regulatory affairs, spoke about Cambodia operation plans on the sidelines of the Routes World conference. “We’ll be starting in Phnom Penh, but we hope to grow Sihanoukville and Siam Reap as well. It will be ASEAN region, and we will be concentrating on domestic as well,” he said.
Speaking about regional trends during an earlier panel discussion, Haradasa said, “I think India’s going to be the new global dominant aviation player coming up in the next five years. This year has changed a lot. India has become a growth market for Southeast Asia. We’ve also seen connecting markets, east connectivity contributing to our growth.”
In India and Australia, AirAsia is continuing to look at opportunities to expand routes to secondary airports that stand outside bilateral agreements. “We will continue to look at secondary ports that are outside the bilateral, which are allowable,” Haradasa said. “That’s the only way we can grow at the moment, so we’ll continue to explore that. China hasn’t bounced back as we expected so we’ll have to continue to look at India as a growth market.”
AirAsia is also looking for growth to secondary Australian airports—in particular, from Indonesia. “That doesn’t mean we don’t fly from Malaysia either,” he said. “But we want to try to minimize ultra-long-haul narrowbody flying because of the fuel issue.”
Haradasa said increased airport charges were an issue. “Especially in a low-cost market model, it’s becoming quite expensive. Now we have to be a lot more careful in our route selection,” Haradasa said. “Private airlines were not safeguarded during the pandemic. It’s very important we protect our cashflows.”
Similarly no news on the mooted reduction in passport fees, which I believe is essential for Air Asia's project in Cambodia.We’ll be starting in Phnom Penh, but we hope to grow Sihanoukville and Siam Reap as well. It will be ASEAN region, and we will be concentrating on domestic as well,
Phnom Penh to where? What can we be looking forward to? Maybe Philippines? Vietnam? They both need decent connections. How about another crack at Penang or Phuket?
What domestic routes would they try? SNK is now well served by road and SAI is an hour from the city so you might as well get a taxi and save $100's for the couple of hours you will save, especially if you are paying for others to travel.
They're definitely planning a local flight from Sihanoukville to Siem Reap. Before COVID, many airlines did that route with good loads. Now, only Cambodia Angkor Air does it with a small plane. And even though tickets are pretty expensive, the flights are usually full.
Probably thats about it for the first year. They need more planes to have more connections than that.
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- armchairlawyer
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Re: AirAsia Plans to Launch Low-Cost Airline in Cambodia
Their plan was to operate 2 A320s out of PNH. PNH-DMK and PNH-KUL are already operating under the Thai and Malaysian parts of Air Asia, (and PNH-Jakarta under the Indonesian part).rogerrabbit wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2023 3:05 pm
They're starting with flights from PP to BKK and to KL. Most likely connections to India and China will be launched next year as well. They could add Phuket, but probably not Penang anytime soon.
They're definitely planning a local flight from Sihanoukville to Siem Reap. Before COVID, many airlines did that route with good loads. Now, only Cambodia Angkor Air does it with a small plane. And even though tickets are pretty expensive, the flights are usually full.
Probably thats about it for the first year. They need more planes to have more connections than that.
Are you saying these will be transferred to the Cambodian part? Or additional?
I have seen nothing recently to confirm that the new Cambodian operation is actually going ahead.
Are tickets bookable for KOS-SAI? I can see that is the one domestic route that has commercial potential. But how does that work if the planes are based at PNH?
BTW, how do you know about the loadings on that route? AFAIK, no websites provide that info. It would be interesting to have those data for all flights.
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Re: AirAsia Plans to Launch Low-Cost Airline in Cambodia
Additional. Or they might take over one or two flight per city, but as the current capacity is significantly lower than pre-covid levels, I'm pretty sure it's mostly additional.armchairlawyer wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2023 6:39 pmTheir plan was to operate 2 A320s out of PNH. PNH-DMK and PNH-KUL are already operating under the Thai and Malaysian parts of Air Asia, (and PNH-Jakarta under the Indonesian part).rogerrabbit wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2023 3:05 pm
They're starting with flights from PP to BKK and to KL. Most likely connections to India and China will be launched next year as well. They could add Phuket, but probably not Penang anytime soon.
They're definitely planning a local flight from Sihanoukville to Siem Reap. Before COVID, many airlines did that route with good loads. Now, only Cambodia Angkor Air does it with a small plane. And even though tickets are pretty expensive, the flights are usually full.
Probably thats about it for the first year. They need more planes to have more connections than that.
Are you saying these will be transferred to the Cambodian part? Or additional?
I have seen nothing recently to confirm that the new Cambodian operation is actually going ahead.
Are tickets bookable for KOS-SAI? I can see that is the one domestic route that has commercial potential. But how does that work if the planes are based at PNH?
BTW, how do you know about the loadings on that route? AFAIK, no websites provide that info. It would be interesting to have those data for all flights.
Also I'm pretty sure they said they will launch with two A321Neos. Which would indicate heavily that they will be flying longer routes, for example to China and India. And two more in order. Interestingly AirAsia Malaysia's only two A321s haven't been in operation in few weeks. That might mean they are preparing them for Cambodia's organization use.
They have been hiring people, so it's definitely going ahead. They have not launched yet is due the licences from government taking time. The airline itself is ready to start flying already. They have new office at Phnom Penh airport arrivals area where all the mobile phone providers are. Lot of people working there.
Tickets for KOS-SAI are only available for Cambodia Angkor Airlines for now. AirAsia Cambodia cannot sell any tickets before they have all certificates and licensed from the local authority first. Anyways I think this route will launched only sometime end of next year or 2025. They said in news article that Siem Reap and Sihanoukville operations will start only after Phnom Penh operations are running. And they will have base in Sihanoukville and/or Siem Reap too. Not just Phnom Penh.
Cambodia Airports used to regularly disclose monthly passenger figures for each airport, including domestic routes, making it straightforward to determine load factors for the domestic flights. However, only limited statistics are made available since the onset of the pandemic.
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Re: AirAsia Plans to Launch Low-Cost Airline in Cambodia
AirAsia had a venture in India, called unsurprisingly AirAsia India. (Joint venture with Tata). After nearly a decade, AirAsia have sold their interests, and the airline is being merged into AirIndia Express, which is Tata owned.
Having an operation based in Cambodia opens up some operational freedom which they might not have, otherwise. But the domestic customers might be well down their target list.
I think it’s probably not in the best interest of the local operators, but would be in the interest of the those involved in tourism in general. Ryanair have done similar in the past, in Europe, and if it doesn’t work, they just pull the plug. Which is of no benefit to customers or local government alike.
It will be interesting to see how well and long it runs.
Having an operation based in Cambodia opens up some operational freedom which they might not have, otherwise. But the domestic customers might be well down their target list.
I think it’s probably not in the best interest of the local operators, but would be in the interest of the those involved in tourism in general. Ryanair have done similar in the past, in Europe, and if it doesn’t work, they just pull the plug. Which is of no benefit to customers or local government alike.
It will be interesting to see how well and long it runs.
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