TIGERAIR and Cebu Pacific Air (CEB) today announced both airlines would enter a strategic alliance, which will see CEB try to tame the losses of Tigerair Philippines.
Tigerair yesterday sold its 40 per cent stake in Tigerair Philippines to CEB, who is set to acquire the remaining 60 per cent owned by local investors.
Lance Gokongwei, CEO of CEB, said CEB and Tigerair Philippines would be kept as separate entities and the Tigerair Philippines brand would be retained for the first year.
Meanwhile, Tigerair and CEB will collaborate on operational and marketing fronts, as well as cross-sell domestic and international routes, creating the largest LCC network in the region, said Gokongwei.
Travel consultants TTG Asia e-Daily spoke to were unmoved by the development. Tony Morales, sales manager at Caravan Travel & Tours, pointed out that the alliance would be a disadvantage to travel agencies, who would lose even more business to online.
John Paul Cabalza, president, Philippine Travel Agencies Association, agreed. “We have no margin, no commission – we just charge a service fee,” he said.
He added that Tigerair would bring in a lot of potential inbound travellers, while CEB had good B2B and B2C platforms. “The end result is that consumers have more choices; there’ll be more product offerings”.
In the meantime, Gokongwei said that CEB will pursue expansion into high traffic regions such as the Middle East, Australia and India.
But Jingle Mendoza, operations manager at Diamond Wings Travel & Tourism, which focuses on leisure business from the Middle East, noted: “CEB tickets can cost up to 18,000 pesos (US$402), and some people have experienced delays of several hours on their route…We have tried, but we also have a hard time getting seats (from CEB).”
