PHILIPPINE carrier Cebu Pacific jointly formed the world’s largest low-cost carrier (LCC) alliance with seven other airlines in the Asia-Pacific region.
Value Alliance—composed of Cebu Pacific, Jeju Air, Nok Air, NokScoot, Scoot, Tigerair Singapore, Tigerair Australia and Vanilla Air—aims to provide greater value, connectivity and choice for travel throughout Southeast Asia, North Asia and Australia, as they bring their extensive networks together.
With the alliance, customers will be able to view, select and book the best-available airfares on flights from any of the airlines in a single transaction, directly from each partner website, thanks to groundbreaking technology developed by Air Black Box (ABB). This means more destinations, more routing options and greater convenience for the customers of each airline.
Unlike typical interline technologies, ABB also allows guests to enjoy the full suite of ancillary choices they have come to appreciate from budget carriers, such as seat and meal selection, variable baggage allowances and other inflight features—across all partner airline sectors in a single itinerary.
ABB’s Air Connection Engine platform has filed for New Distribution Capability (NDC) Certification with International Air Transport Association (Iata) and is expected to complete full certification soon.
The Iata said the certification enables “the travel industry to transform the way air products are retailed to corporations, leisure and business travelers, by addressing the industry’s current distribution limitations: product differentiation and time-to-market, access to full and rich air content and finally, transparent shopping experience.”
The Value Alliance airlines, who together cover a third of the earth and serve more than 160 destinations with a collective fleet of 176 aircraft across the Asia Pacific region, will strengthen distribution in their non-home markets, expand their saleable networks via the provision of interline itineraries, retain their ancillary revenue opportunities and offer their customers a better, one-stop-shop experience.
“All of our airline partners are champions in their local markets and well regarded for their value and service regionally and nationally. The Value Alliance is a clear example of how LCCs can accomplish more by working together than we could do individually,” Cebu Pacific President and CEO Lance Y. Gokongwei said.
Asia Pacific’s tourism industry is the largest in the world, offering travellers experiences as diverse as visiting the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, exploring Tokyo’s mix of traditional shrines and modern shopping, or island hopping in the Philippines or Thailand.
With more than 500 million visitors expected to arrive in Asia Pacific by 2020, the new Value Alliance will connect travellers to more of the unique destinations they wish to explore typically found in secondary cities.