Tiger Airways and AirAsia in advertising war

Tiger Airways and AirAsia in advertising war

Tiger Airways has won the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation's Low Cost Airline of the Year award, the carrier announced on Tuesday - as the tit-for-tat between Tiger and Malaysia-based AirAsia continued, with AirAsia chief executive Tony Fernandes quoted by website marketing-interactive.com as describing his rival as "a tiny carrier".

In a media statement on Wednesday, Tiger Airways president and group chief executive Tony Davis appeared to brush aside the latest jibe by declaring that Tiger aims to be among the top three airlines globally.

He added that Tiger, which is partly-owned by Singapore Airlines, had achieved record passenger numbers and growth in excess of 43 per cent this year.

Mr Davis noted that Thai Tiger - a low-cost carrier it is set to start with Thai Airways - was on track to launch in the first quarter of next year.

The move would see it compete head-on with Mr Fernandes' own Thai AirAsia.

In an apparent riposte to the controversial full-page advertisements AirAsia put out in The Straits Times and The Business Times on Tuesday, Mr Davis said, "It's no wonder some of our competitors are getting so rattled."

However, in an interview with Channel NewsAsia, AirAsia's regional head of commercial Kathleen Tan said the advertisements had "nothing to do with Thai Tiger".

Rather, the carrier had thought up the advertisement, which showed a crying tiger cub and the tagline "If Tigers were meant to fly, they would be born with wings", because they "love a good fight on the marketing front once in a while" said Ms Tan.

Tiger recently cancelled numerous flights, leaving thousands of passengers stranded.

"We thought it's a great time to do things that are a little bit fun; a little bit wicked. It's not meant as a one-up, we're not attacking anyone, we were just being clever and witty to assert our marketing leadership," Ms Tan added.

-News courtesy of Channel Newsasia-