Thai Tiger: Thai Airways puts the Tiger among the pigeons. Regional liberalisation the likely winner

Thai Airways and Tiger Airways are to form a joint venture, "Thai Tiger", to operate international and domestic Thailand domestic point-to-point services. The new JV, to be owned 51:49 by Thai Airways and another "Thai entity", raises the bar in low cost airline operations competition in Asia and could have a major impact on the pace of airline liberalisation in the region. Until now, the Thai government has been highly protective of its flag carrier and has been threatening to drag the chain on the ASEAN multilateral timetable for moving towards open skies for Southeast Asian airlines. This position could now soften, as high cost Thai Airways will have the opportunity to meet competition on a more equal footing. Some of this competition comes from AirAsia's JV, Thai AirAsia, as well as from its own JV in low cost airline Nok Air (in which Thai currently holds a 39% stake).