OASIS Hong Kong is, in the words of its chief executive Stephen Miller, feeling “pretty pleased” at the way the long haul, low-cost airline is travelling. And why not? Miller points to some impressive figures.
Load factors since launching last year have risen from around 60 percent to 87 percent in April and around 80 percent in May. “We’re way above the targets we set ourselves. We expected to be around 65 percent load factor at this stage in our development,” said Miller.
The 68-year-old has worked alongside some of the bestknown names in the industry, including Michael O’Leary of Ryanair. “There’s been a much bigger uptake than we anticipated from London to Hong Kong.
In fact, the Hong Kong Tourism Board has told us that the overall market between the UK and Hong Kong has increased 30 percent since we started flying.
Part of the increase is attributed to our presence in the market.” So far Oasis has carried 90,000 passengers and has pipeline bookings heading towards 170,000. UK services to Gatwick Airport are likely to go double daily next year when new aircraft arrive.
Current average round trip fares on the route are HK$6,500 (US$830) in economy and HK$16,000 (US$2045) in business class. Miller, who started Dragonair, now part of Cathay Pacific, does not believe Oasis has taken market share from the established airlines, instead the carrier has encouraged a lot of first-time visitors to Hong Kong.
“The airlines we’ve targeted are those who fly with one or two stops to the UK from Hong Kong. Airlines such as Emirates, Qatar, Gulf and Finnair.” Miller’s strategy has been to appeal to budget passengers who would prefer to fly non-stop without the high fares. No one likes being on an aircraft longer than they need,” he says.
He has also been encouraged by the uptake of the 81 business class seats on his 747-400s.
“There are a lot of independent travellers, and businessmen from SMEs, who feel the high premium class fares of the major airlines are not value for money.
“So we have found a niche. Our business class is 65-70 percent booked by UK-based passengers, many of whom are travelling onto mainland China from Hong Kong.”
Miller has a small stake in Oasis, with the biggest portion, 60 percent, being owned by the chairman and executive director, the Rev Raymond Lee, and his wife, Priscilla, successful Hong Kong-based property investors.
The inaugural Hong Kong-London flight was delayed by a day after the authorities rejected the plan to fly through Russian airspace, but since then the airline has been on a steady flight path.
The next growth spurt will see the launch of services to Vancouver at the end of June and the arrival of a third 747-400, with two more on the way. We’re also looking at Australia. It’s a tough market down there but we see it as a good market for feeding passengers into the rest of our system.”
Miller said one of the challenges has been to build brand visibility and he was encouraged by a recent Hong Kong Best Brand 2007 award. He also points to an ontime performance which, at 93 percent, “is better than any of our competitors”.
Miller’s pilots have been recruited from those companies who forced them to retire at 55, but who still want to work. He says this means they are old hands at flying the route, and so experienced that they often act as instructors.
