ME budget carriers eyeing Asia business travel sector in big way

Corporate travel today constitutes the biggest market segment for the airline industry world over. In recent times, Asia has become a hotspot for aviation industry in premium travel sector. More and more airlines are increasingly looking towards the region. In fact, a war of sorts has been unleashed recently with budget carriers making an aggressive pitch and giving the legacy carriers a run for their money. Industry analysts aver that major legacy carriers such as Qatar Airways, Emirates Airline and Etihad Airways which have so far dominated the Gulf aviation market are now being posed a challenge by budget carriers like Air Arabia, flydubai and Jazeera. The challenge is so severe that it has started shaking up the market.

Budget carriers have cost advantages on their side with a renewed focus on quality as well. This is forcing the legacy carriers to rethink their pricing and ponder offering cheap business class tickets more frequently in addition to upgraded amenities in business class cabins. Apart from pricing, the legacy carriers are also being forced to rethink in terms of positioning and distribution strategies.

The legacy carriers hold a major sway in most parts of the world. However, the rapid growth of budget carriers is causing worries to legacy carriers, which see a major dent in the aviation market in the long term.  More than half of the intra-European market is currently captive to the budget carriers. In Asia, the market share of budget carriers has not grown steadily. Seeing the vacuum, the budget carriers are now tending to focus more on Asia, particularly India and China, with business travelers being their prime target. The future growth of the aviation industry is all set to shift its base from US and Europe to Asia now.