Scoot, Nok Air to set up Asian budget airline

Nok Air and Scoot are planning to launch a budget carrier as demand for low-cost travel in Asia strengthens.

The Thailand and Singapore-based carriers will be the creators of NokScoot and operate on medium and long-haul routes across the region, should the plans achieve regulatory approval.

Both firms will make an initial joint investment of $64 million.

Scoot CEO Campbell Wilson said:

"Thailand is Asia's premier tourist destination and logical hub for Scoot to expand to."

However, it is not only NokScoot which will tap in to the market for low-cost travel. On Monday, rival budget airline Tigerair announced (.pdf) a partnership with China Airlines, the biggest carrier in Taiwan. The joint venture, which will tap the North Asia budget travel market, involves the creation of a new no-frills flight service operating under the name of Tigerair Taiwan. Tigerair will hold a 10 percent stake of the new carrier.

Group CEO of Tigerair Mr Koay Peng Yen said:

"We are delighted to forge this partnership with China Airlines. The new JV will allow us to extend our presence into the new, untapped markets of Taiwan, Japan, and Korea. There is vast potential for growth in these markets and also areas of synergy to be explored between the two airlines."

According to a new report from the Global Business Travel Association, no other nation is growing its business travel market as quickly as China. Chinese-originated business travel is expected to grow 14.3 percent to $224 billion this year, putting the country on track to surpass the United States as the world's top spender potentially by 2016. 

Via: BBC 

Image credit: Flickr

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com