Eight Asian low-cost carriers have joined hands to create an alliance in the Asia Pacific region to optimize the usage of their networks by travellers.
The new alliance offers flights to more than 160 destinations. Its website allows passengers to book tickets across airlines in the group. The new alliance offers a combined fleet strength of 174 aircraft and is the largest budget carrier alliance in the world.
The Value Alliance said its members are ANA's Vanilla Air, SIA's Scoot and Tiger Airways, Virgin Australia Holdings Tiger Airways Australia, Thai carriers Nok Airlines and NokScoot, Cebu Air's Cebu Pacific, and South Korea's Jeju Air.
However, the Value Alliance does not offer extensive codesharing agreements as in full-service carrier partnerships like Star Alliance, Oneworld and SkyTeam.
It also does not include Malaysia's AirAsia, Asia's biggest budget carrier. However, the new alliance helps carriers expand their network, experts said.
"This is a positive move for the LCCs ... The one disadvantage for LCCs is their lack of network brand. It's quite difficult for them to join the full-service alliances so they have to form their own alliances. Through this joint alliance they can expand their network," JPMorgan Securities Japan analyst Dan Lu told Bloomberg.
