Asia's budget airlines spread their wings with long-haul flights

March 15

While European carriers are facing turbulent times, some Asian airlines are hoping that a cut-price long-haul model will find a ready market in Asia's growing middle class.

Globally, low-cost carriers have been the industry's success story over the past decade, with their market share rising from 8% of all seats sold in 2001 to nearly 26% this year, according to the Centre for Aviation.

Budget airlines have largely focused on short- to medium-haul routes, with their success in winning passengers through low fares forcing many full-service "legacy carriers" to launch their own low-cost options in response.

Efforts to apply the low-cost model to longer-haul travel -- most notably on trans-Atlantic routes -- have repeatedly met with failure, as witnessed in the collapse of Laker Airways in 1982, and Zoom Airlines in 2008.

But now, in Asia, an increasing number of operators are beginning to offer long-haul air travel for low fares, opening a new frontier in the fiercely competitive aviation market.