Cheap fares are expected to lure tourists to Asia’s gambling mecca.
A report by Scott Rochfort in The Sydney Morning Herald says that Viva Macau has marked its entry as the first Asian low-cost airline to fly to Sydney by offering three day flight and hotel packages in the Chinese territory for $768.
The airline started selling tickets on its website yesterday afternoon and announced this morning its launch of three weekly flights to Macau from August 16.
“We see ourselves as the first airline to really market Macau to the world,” said Viva CEO Con Korfiatis.
The two-class Viva is also offering return fares from $588 (including taxes) and “Super Star Class” business fares for $2370 return.
“Our mission is to put Macau on the map,” said the former Qantas and Jetstar Asia executive.
Macau is expected to attract 26 million visitors this year, mainly from mainland China, with the number of hotel rooms in the 27 square kilometre territory is expected to grow from 14,000 to 70,000 within the next five years.
Viva’s growth plans hinge around the ongoing growth as Macau not only a gambling centre and aside from banking on capturing some of the traffic between Sydney and Hong Kong, the airline hopes to tap into the rapidly growing Chinese tourist market into Australia, with the Pearl River basin that surrounds Macau having a population of around 90 million people.
Viva is not the first budget Asian carrier to fly to Australia, with Singapore Airlines part-owned Tiger already operating flights from Darwin and Perth to Singapore.
The next Asian budget airline set to fly to Australia is Malaysia’s AirAsiaX, which is reported to be close to choosing Melbourne’s Avalon Airport as its first Australian destination, the airline planning to fit 396 passengers in its Airbus 330-300 aircraft. Qantas by comparison fits 307 passengers on its A330-300s.
AirAsia has also expressed an interest in flying from its Kuala Lumpur homebase to Newcastle airport instead of Sydney.
Jetstar said it was not fazed by Viva’s entry, noting it offered $398 return fares to Phuket and $338 to Bali for its launch last year.
“It just underscores that we have open skies in Australia,” said Jetstar spokesman Simon Westaway.
Report by The Mole and The Sydney Morning Herald
John Alwyn-Jones
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