Writing was on the wall for loss-making Jetstar Asia: Analysts

Costs, competition hurt carrier as it tried to claw its way back post-pandemic

- Kok Yufeng Transport Correspondent and Vanessa Paige Chelvan Correspondent

Even before the sudden announcement on June 11 that Jetstar Asia would cease operations on July 31 after more than 20 years of flying, the writing was on the wall for the low-cost airline.

The Singapore-based carrier was already struggling to make consistent profits before Covid-19 brought aviation to a standstill, and it was in the black for only six years in all the time it had been in operation.

Faced with rising costs and intense competition as it tried to claw its way back post-pandemic, the airline's eventual closure was unfortunate but unsurprising, industry analysts told The Straits Times.

"The airline never got its mojo back," said Professor Alan Tan, who specialises in aviation law and politics at the National University of Singapore.

While rivals like Singapore Airlines' budget arm Scoot ramped up flights and destinations, Jetstar Asia made a slow recovery.

The airline today operates a fleet of 13 aircraft, down from 18 before the pandemic. It also does not fly to India and has only a single flight to China - both major aviation markets, Prof Tan noted.

"The problem of Jetstar Asia's lack of scale is all too apparent," he said.

Mr Alan Lim, a director at Alton Aviation Consultancy, noted that Jetstar Asia's capacity and traffic in 2024 was nearly half of the levels recorded before the pandemic.

About four million passengers flew into or out of Singapore on the airline in 2019; in 2024, this figure fell to about 2.3 million.

Analysts also said the airline's move from Changi Airport Terminal 1 to Terminal 4 in March 2023, which Jetstar Asia had initially resisted, did not help its cause.

"That probably exacerbated the issues that they already faced to begin with, as they lost the seamless connectivity that they had with parent airline Qantas," said Mr Shukor Yusof, founder of aviation consultancy Endau Analytics.