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Before you fly Oasis Hong Kong Airlines read this review |
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Gadgets
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Written by Administrator
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 David Ellis
THE Far East has become a budget travel proposition since Oasis Hong Kong Airlines first launched their London Gatwick to Hong Kong service a year ago in October 2006 with eye catching single fares as low as just £75.
But Oasis has dropped its headline-grabbing lowest fare despite promises it would keep it indefinitely. Oasis had pledged it would keep 10 per cent of all seats on each flight on the London-Hong Kong service at this price. Chief executive and Oasis founder Steve Miller had told Newsmonster earlier that a proportion of these fares would be reserved for the indefinite future. "We will keep it - because it's a fare we should offer,” he said.
Doubtless the move will come as a disappointment to many in the UK and Asia. The cheapest flights on the London-Hong Kong route are now £109 – before payment of any airport tax.
In a recent clarification, Miller told Newsmonster: “The £75 fares achieved what we set out to do – draw attention to the airline’s existence. This has been done and now we are settling down we still have the lowest fares of all the airlines on the routes that we serve and we feel that is sufficient to attract the traveling public, and also what the public appreciate.”
He points out that tourist numbers flying into Hong Kong from the UK have risen a remarkable 19 per cent over the same period. “Our fares are stimulating the market and this is what we set out to do,” he added.
The Hong Kong based airline is one of the pioneers to have adopted the budget airline model for long haul flight. It has been accomplished by an interesting combination of Hong Kong capital with a business plan and model pieced together by Miller.
Sitting in his sparsely furnished office at the firm's head office in Lantau, the Hong Kong island which houses the territory's airport, Miller is the model of an urbane, ex-army officer. After his army career landed him in Hong Kong, Miller has subsequently acquired 44 years of aviation experience. In that time, he has covered the gamut of the sector, from the start-up of CargoLux, now Europe's largest all-cargo airline to working on the financing side, having spent time with Guinness Peat Aviation - or GPA as it became - before it crashed and burned spectacularly in the early nineties.
More recently, he says, he had always been conscious of the HK-to-London route as one area for possible entrepreneurial interest. Three years ago, he became serious, and commissioned a research study as to how exactly passengers seek out flights between HK and London. He had expected to find a significant proportion flying London-Dubai-Hong Kong, say, with a couple of days stop over and some shopping. That was in fact no more than 1 per cent of the sector. By far the most people who flew stopover were doing so because they had found a fare that was cheaper than the long haul fare. "Most people weren't able to find long-haul flights at a price they could afford," he said.
Plugging the figures into a model, he found that a leased Boeing 747 could offer flights to customers at the same rate as the budget stop-over flights and still make a profit.
Oasis gained most attention for its eye-popping headline fare of just £75 one-way – although that did not include airline taxes, which for London-to-Hong Kong came in at £77.58. Even so, a total of just £152.58 one way - or, with a return flight of £115 all-in - a total of £267 return, knocked the competition into a cocked hat. At the time, the cheapest flight were around the £450 level, with most pitched at £600 and upwards; and that was in economy.
So if the economics of Oasis still make a compelling case for a budget traveller, what of the experience itself? There's no doubt, whichever way you cut it, that flying London to Hong Kong is a tedious journey. Long haul flights offer few attractions for the jaded traveller. Unlike short-haul budget flights, Oasis still serves food and drinks in economy – something of a necessity if you are airborne for 13 hours. Even so, like much airline food, it's nothing to write home about. And space in economy is cramped – as for most airlines – although Oasis emphasises that its pitch space is actually greater, by an inch or so, than many of its rivals.
However, the cabin crew are very friendly and willing to help. In other words, the flight, like many economy long haul flights, will be a bearable form of torture, but at least passengers can bask in the savings they have made.
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