02 October 2008

New Jetstar chief reveals Asia vision

SYDNEY - Jetstar's new chief executive Bruce Buchanan has been telling Business Spectator's Isabelle Oderberg about where he sees the opportunities and the challenges for the Qantas budget carrier.

He said his vision for Jetstar was as a pan-Asian carrier.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœIÃ¢â¬â¢d like to see us flying to, if not every destination in the Asian region, then all the significant ones.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœI see the brand as something that could be quite pervasive in the Asian region and weÃ¢â¬â¢re being very successful in markets where people said we wouldnÃ¢â¬â¢t succeed.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœSo if you look at a market like Japan, there was a lot of scepticism that the brand would work in a market like Japan and I think weÃ¢â¬â¢ve been very successful.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœI think weÃ¢â¬â¢re now looking at businesses in Vietnam and Singapore trying to really build our franchises and our brand presence in those markets and start to really connect up some of the dots.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœLooking at connecting markets, recently announced services for Jetstar Pacific are a good example where theyÃ¢â¬â¢re now flying through Vietnam into Thailand, connecting up with our services out of Australia into Thailand and Jetstar Asia services into Thailand, so you can start to see critical mass appearing in some of those markets.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœThe vision for me is to have a brand that is very pervasive and gives customers the choice of a Jetstar service in any of the key destinations they want to travel to in any of those Asian markets.Ã¢â¬~

Buchanan said he did not regard Tiger Airways as a major rival because of their Ã¢â¬Åâœvery small number of aircraftÃ¢â¬~.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœI think thereÃ¢â¬â¢s a lot of noise that comes out of that camp,Ã¢â¬~ he said.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœWe welcome competition, we think itÃ¢â¬â¢s good, we think itÃ¢â¬â¢s healthy for the economy, it keeps us nimble and active as well.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœWe like to be first, we like to be aggressive on these things so itÃ¢â¬â¢s all positive, but I think in terms of economics and where the serious challenges are going to come, from I think itÃ¢â¬â¢s going to come from other quarters (other than Tiger)."