Tiger Airways Says 1 Dollar Tickets Sold Out

[george]

Tiger Airways says 1 dollar tickets sold out

SINGAPORE (AFP) — New budget airline Tiger Airways recorded more than 7 million hits on its Web site for some 3,500 tickets to Thailand offered at a one Singapore dollar (59 U.S. cents) promotion rate, the carrier said Thursday. (Related story: Asian price war looms as new carrier offers 59-cent fare)

All the tickets — to Bangkok, the resort island of Phuket and the southern town of Hatyai — were sold out by Wednesday afternoon, a spokesman told AFP.

"Certainly from the marketing perspective, it has been extremely successful," he said. "One of Tiger's objective is to enable more people to fly and this one-dollar ticket strategy has been very successful in ensuring that more people can fly and more often."

The Singapore Airlines-backed budget carrier on Monday pulled a marketing stunt by offering the fare of one dollar for a one-way trip to the three popular Thai destinations when its maiden services begin later this month.

A return ticket will cost two dollars excluding taxes.

The marketing gimmick was an instant hit with the public who rushed to make their online bookings, swamping Tiger's Web site which was unable to cope with the traffic.

Tiger Airways will start operating on September 15 with a flight to Bangkok.

It competes with rival Singapore-based budget carrier Valuair and Malaysia's AirAsia.

One more Singapore-based budget carrier, backed by Australia's Qantas and still not commercially branded, is set to launch services within the year.

--AFP 2004-09-02

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