millionmiler

Oasis to launch Hong Kong-Oakland flights in June
Updated 1/11/2007 8:51 AM ET



HONG KONG (AFP) — After more than two months into its service, Hong Kong's long-haul budget airline Oasis said Wednesday its performance has lived up to expectations and a second route will be launched in June.
Oasis chief executive Stephen Miller said Oasis will begin flying to Oakland, this June. The airline initially will fly four times a week, with daily service becoming available in August.

Oasis, which offers a one-way economy class ticket from Hong Kong to London for as little as $128, said no price has been fixed for the U.S. route but promised a competitive rate.

The low-cost carrier launched its first service to London's Gatwick Airport in late October.

...

Oasis performance so far has met the company's expectations, he said.

"We are doing well. Last week, we had 100 flights and carried 25,000 passengers. This January to date, we are 100% on time, which is very unusual in the airline business," Miller told AFP in a telephone interview.

He reported a load factor of 75% from October to date, and the $128 tickets are often sold out six to eights weeks in advance, he said.

Miller claimed Oasis has been in talks with U.K. budget airline easyJet and with U.S. discounters Southwest and JetBlue for connections to the rest of Europe and North America. But, Miller said Oasis has no plans yet to form an alliance.

"We need easyJet on a regular basis. We operate from their hub... we (will) have a link to easyjet on our website, passengers can link with easyJet to make our bookings. This is a simple arrangement. We have no alliance as such. We don't need one," he said.

"We are a point-to-point operator... These days, it's so easy to make your own arrangement. You don't need a complicated interline relationship. Our target is to keep down our number of employees, offer lowest possible fares and keep overhead very low," he said.

Despite the launch of new long-haul budget carrier AirAsia X, which operates cheap flights to Britain and other European destinations, China and India, Miller said Oasis was unfazed by the new airline.

He believes travelers would choose to go to Hong Kong rather than Malaysia because of its better international flight connections, making the southern Chinese territory a preferred destination.

"(Travelers) usually go from Hong Kong to somewhere else too. A lot of people combine business and pleasure," he said.

...


Miller said Oasis, which is currently operating on two planes, will buy three more this year. The airline aims to take the fleet up to 25 in five years.

jonathanlo280792

Good news for O8!

Any idea of what aircraft they are buying this year??

number_6

Oasis has boasted about having an all-744 fleet and I imagine intends to maintain that. Their first 2 planes were SQ-owned but leased to IB prior to acquisition by Oasis. There aren't any more 744s like that, however SQ is retiring several 744s as their 777s are delivered (SQ had 6 777s delivered in 2006, so will be retiring at least 2 more 744s soon, presumably to Oasis). I don't think Oasis business model includes buying any new planes, only used ones.

BW Flyer

Wonder if Oasis will put any pricing pressure on CX's SFO-HKG flights. I do think there is a market for budget-minded O&D travellers in the Bay Area, just don't know if they are enough to fill a 744 everyday.

I did a CX SFO-HKG run last year (with AS connection to SEA) in non-peak time, and both flights were virtually full.

BW

number_6

Oasis mentions that it picked OAK due to having lots of low-cost onward flights, so it knows the O/D market isn't enough. OAK seems like a good choice from that respect, can't really think of any other low-cost airport on the west coast that would be suitable.

party_boy

I hope this puts some pricing pressure on BR, CI, and UA for SFO-HKG flights.

Guy Betsy

UA flies SFO-HKG already...

But CI, BR go by way of TPE....obviously!

millionmiler

This will certainly bring down the Y class fares from the Bay Area to Hong Kong.

HkCaGu

As CX has demonstrated on its red-eye LAX-HKG flights, a west-bound red-eye OAK-HKG will open it up to the Guangdong market (if not other provinces too). SF and Oakland are rich in Guangdong immigrants (and I mean the province) and many don't have enough English skills to fly US carriers (much less changing planes) and want enough time to get to their home cities/villages on the same day of arrival into HKG.

jonathanlo280792

http://hk.news.yahoo.com/070110/187/1zpzh.html

Oasis Hong Kong Airlines, the long-haul budget airline serving Gatwick Airport in London, is in talks with private equity funds and airlines that could buy into the airline before it goes public in 2009, says chief executive Stephen Miller.

The carrier also plans to begin a service to Oakland, California, in June and expects to get approval to fly to Vancouver in three months.

Oasis would take delivery of three Boeing 747-400s by October and planned to deploy 25 aircraft in the next five years, Mr Miller said yesterday. The total cost of the plane acquisitions would be US$2.5 billion.

To fund the acquisitions, Mr Miller said Oasis was in talks with several private equity funds, investment funds and airlines about a pre-listing fund-raising.

"[The price and size of the stake] depends on what type of investors they are and what will they bring us," he said.

Oasis carried 250,000 passengers in its first nine weeks of operation, overcoming start-up problems that delayed its maiden flight for a day.

The next destination for Oasis will be Oakland, adjacent to San Francisco. Mr Miller said the new daily service would take off in June at rock-bottom ticket prices.

Vancouver will be the third destination once the carrier receives approval from the Hong Kong government to serve the route.

Mr Miller said he expected approval to be granted three or four months from now as the Hong Kong-Vancouver route is underserved, keeping ticket prices high.

"We will offer the ticket prices [to Oakland and Vancouver] as low as HK$1,000, the same level as what we do for London," he said.

Mr Miller said Oasis felt no pressure from its Malaysia-based rival AirAsia, which last Friday announced it would offer promotional US$3 tickets to London.

"We are serving different markets. They are focusing on Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia while we are focusing on Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta," he said.

As for co-operation with other budget airlines, Mr Miller said he was comfortable with the existing "indirect relationship" between Oasis and Britain-based easyJet that allows some Oasis passengers to connect with easyJet.

Mr Miller said that more management was needed to be hired to examine the alliance, which would end up increasing costs and raising ticket prices.





So...Vancouver's being the third destination of O8 after government's approval!!!! Very good news to me, as I'm currently a Honger living in Vancouver. They're pretty smart that they opened routes which have high Chinese population (Vancouver, SF (or OAK) and London) Also they are buying 3 747-400 this year.....I wonder where they are from...

eeprofessional

I think it is about time Oasis comes into the fray. This certainly creates some pressure for SFO/LAX-HKG/Guandong route

But don't forget AC probably going to feel this too since ppl in the west coast use SFO/LAX/YVR for connections to HKG

I am willing to give Oasis a try (if not switch) when it comes to Oakland.
300 bucks R/T to HKG is well worth it.

agmhkg

Looking forwrad for their YVR flight! planning to fly back to HKG at the end of the year......and would like to fly back at the lowest fare HKD2000/rt (of course plus tax .....) if it's going to be the late night dep from YVR is even better!

HkCaGu

Being a potential BUR-OAK-HKG flyer, I certainly hope they can have an interline agreement with WN! I'm fine with a 50-lb limit, but not having to recheck bags for OAK-HKG would be nice!

BW Flyer

I agree that OAK is the best choice for low cost operation. I fly SEA-OAK a lot, and the Airport is user friendly although spartan.

I wonder if any of the existing gates can handle 744, or if the PAXs need to disembark on the tarmac and took the bus to the terminal for immigration/customs. I also wonder if they need to expand their immigration/customs facility, since all they handle now are 1-2 daily flights to Mexico destinations.

WN does not do interline services other than TZ, so I don't know if Oasis can score that arrangement, especially WN hasn't shown much interests in international services/connections.

BW

party_boy

I suppose I wrote it wrong. I meant pricing pressure ON HKG flights from SFO.