Low cost carrier Air Asia X announced that its flight from Kuala Lumpur will now go to London Gatwick instead of Stansted. Is this a sign that Gatwick is becoming a more competitive airport under new, non-BAA ownership? Or is it just a one-off move? I know it may just seem like a small change, but could it be the first of bigger changes among London’s secondary airports?

If I told you that two of the largest low cost carriers in the Asia Pacific region got together to form an alliance, that would be pretty big news, right? Well, that’s what is happening now as Jetstar and Air Asia have decided to link up. This is big news, but for passengers, it’s not news at all. This is going to be a behind-the-scenes link for now, but I wouldn’t rule out bigger changes up front later on.

For those who aren’t familiar, Air Asia is the monster of the low cost carrier world in Southeast Asia. They started out with a couple used 737s, but they’ve now grown into a behemoth. They should be flying 100 airplanes by the end of this year, most of which are A320s. They have plenty more on order as well, effectively trying to turn themselves into the Asian version of Ryanair (though, funny enough, unlike Ryanair, with European-built airplanes). They’ve also recently started Air Asia X for long haul low cost flying with A330s. (Strange fact: Air Asia X inexplicably sponsors the Oakland Raiders despite a) them not flying anywhere on this continent and b) the Raiders absolutely sucking.)

Jetstar has taken a different path. They are a very rare specimen – a successful low cost airline within an airline. They are a part of Qantas and are about half the size of Air Asia in terms of fleet. They have a bunch of A320s buzzing around Australia, and they added long haul flying on A330s. They’ve grown their Jetstar Asia (and Jetstar Pacific in Vietnam) product in the same region as Air Asia, but they don’t actually overlap that much.

Jetstar started the consolidation party by merging with Valuair a few years back. You’ll still see Valuair flying airplanes but the branding is Jetstar these days. Now, Jetstar is getting together with Air Asia, but it’s not like you think.

This alliance is supposedly all about cost savings. They’re going to get together to try to build purchasing power for fuel, ground handling, airplanes, and more. The airplane piece is particularly interesting in that they’re really going to try to push the development of the successor to the 737 and A320 airplanes. They want the next generation so they can drive down costs.

There are some really good points in a blog post over at Plane Talking covering the announcement. Air Asia is really focused on driving down costs – lower costs means they can lower fares and stimulate travel. They’re gonna make money on volume. And it’s been working for them so far.

This does put an abrupt end to the rumors swirling about Air Asia and Virgin Blue coming together to create an ultra low cost carrier in Australia. That’s probably a good thing. There’s already a blood bath in that country, so they don’t need any more rock bottom fares.

All eyes are now on Tiger Airways, the biggest competitor in the region. Tiger not only flies around Southeast Asia, but they opened up an Australian division as well. They don’t appear to be making money on that, and this is likely to put more pressure on them. If Air Asia and Jetstar can lower costs and fares, that can’t be good for Tiger.

Now, will this spill over into a customer-facing alliance? I don’t see why it wouldn’t some day. Though Qantas has done a good job with Jetstar, why not join forces with Air Asia and let the leader in the space run your low cost carrier? Keep a stake and watch your fortunes rise. But for now, there’s nothing to announce on that front. We’ll see how long it takes.

I know that being a pilot doesn’t hold nearly as much caché as it used to, but Air Asia is really trying to drive this profession into the ground even further. They need pilots, so what are they doing? In their own words . . . .

So YOU wanna be a pilot? Simple. What do you have to do? Blog. What? Thats [sic] it? Yes, you’re reading it right. Blog.

Scary thought, right? I mean, this seems like a very strange way to find someone to command an airplane full of dozens of people. To be fair, it’s not really as bad as it sounds. The winners of this contest just get their foot in the door for an interview. I assume at that point, something like decent flying skills will actually be required. But I can’t imagine that something this gimmicky is good for public perception of the airline.

What really gets me is the poorly-edited, low sound quality video they’ve included to promote the contest:

What’s the first reason the man with the sun glasses who appears to fly for the airline likes being a pilot? “Because of the girls.” The second reason? “’cause of the bling-bling and because of the money.” I know it’s a joke (sort of), and I’m sure this kind of talk could go on behind the scenes at any airline, but come on, Air Asia. You have passengers watching this video, and that hardly gives off an aura of competency.

The good news is that there are some rules behind this competition, but of course those are buried in the fine print. Yes, you actually do have to meet minimum standards as set by the government of Malaysia and you must have received decent grades in school. And like I said, this just gets you in the door for an interview. So it’s not really as bad as it looks, but it sure does look bad.

Heck, I might fit in with these clowns myself. I’d be tempted to give it a shot except for one slight problem. You have to be proficient in Bahasa Malaysia. And according to the comments, it seems like you have to be a Malaysian national. Well, so much for that.

[Thanks to Bangalore Aviation for the tip]

Let’s say you’re running Air Asia, the premier low-cost carrier in Southeast Asia, and you’ve got a problem. You want to keep growing, but that airport at your primary hub in Kuala Lumpur can’t keep up. What do you do? Apparently, you build your own airport.

Air Asia says that it has already outgrown the low cost carrier terminal that was built at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in 2006, and it needs more room. KLIA has plans to make more room there, but Air Asia says that costs are too high there and it wouldn’t happen fast enough anyway. Instead, they’re going to build “KLIA East” which will be, uh, east of the existing KLIA in Labu which is apparently where there’s an enormous development project underway called Negeri Sembilan Vision City. Take a look at it on the map and you’ll see that for customers in Kuala Lumpur, it’s not much different than going to KLIA except that unlike the existing KLIA, it will be on a train line. Oh, and operating costs are expected to be 30% less.

I see something like that and I have to wonder if an airline in the US could do this. Technically? Maybe. Practically? No chance in hell. If a US airline wanted to take a stab at it, it would have to be completely privately funded with no federal money being used for operations. A US airline would also have to find a place where there’s a big population base and land is affordable. Bzzt. Try again. Even then I’m not sure if this would be allowed under anti-trust rules.

Back in the day, Boeing, United Air Lines, and Burbank Airport were all part of the same company. The government broke that one up, but I’m not sure whether that would still happen today. Anyone know the rules on this? Could an airline actually build their own airport in the US is they so choose?

It’s time for another fun filled airline makeover, boys and girls!

Rumors had been flying all week that Virgin Atlantic, easyJet, and Air Asia had been plotting a massive alliance for long haul low cost flights. While Virgin and easyJet have denied involvement for now, Air Asia’s plans are now coming out. Here they are . . .

It may not look like much, but it’s exactly what they’re doing. Let me break it down. Malaysia regional carrier FlyAsianXpress (FAX) will fly long haul international low cost flights. Instead of using the FAX name, they will try to capitalize on Air Asia’s strong brand in southeast Asia and operate as Air Asia X.

How is this going to happen? Well, conveniently, Tony Fernandes, owner of Air Asia, also owns half of FAX. So, he’s effectively taken this tiny regional airline and used its certificate to gain long haul route authorities from the Malaysian government.

Where exactly are they going to fly? It’s unclear right now. One article says that Malaysia’s Transport Ministry has given rights to FAX to fly to destinations that “do not include international flights currently handled by Malaysia Airlines.” There are other sources, however, that say that first flights will be to London and China. Malaysia Airlines flies twice daily to London/Heathrow, so maybe they’re going to let FAX fly to London/Gatwick to avoid direct competition. Another article says the official statement includes China, India, and Europe.

No matter what, this airline is guaranteed to bring some seriously low fares to these routes. Yet another article says fares could be as low as RM9.99 to London. That’s just shy of USD3, so I can’t imagine that’s real, but they will be lower than you can get anywhere else right now.

The strange thing is that FAX appears to be considering either 777-300ER or A330-300 aircraft in two class configuration. Those aircraft are hardly in the same class. A 777-300ER can hold around 451 that layout while an A330-300 will hold near 335. Those are pretty big differences and I don’t understand why they would be using those two in their consideration set.