Pack your bags, flights are about to get cheaper

If you’ve been dreaming of a holiday, the news that prices to 116 destinations across the globe are to be slashed by up to 30 per cent might just be the incentive you needed to get planning.

A landmark deal has been struck with budget airlines from across the world, which will see dramatic decreases in the cost of ticket prices to a wide range of destinations.

Participating in what is aptly being called the ‘Value Alliance’ is Tigerair (Australia and Singapore), Scoot (Australia and Thailand), Cebu Pacific (the Philippines), Jeju Air (South Korea) and Vanilla Air (Japan). That’s eight of the budget carriers servicing Asia and the Pacific.

You might want to go and dust that suitcase off if it’s been a while since your last adventure.

While these airlines have teamed to create the world’s largest low-cost airline alliance they will still operate as distinctly individual businesses. However, flights, promotions and add-ons will be available on each other’s sites, which means that if you go to Tigerair to book a holiday away to Bangkok you’ll also have access to the flight options from those eight airlines.

You’ll have streamlined transactions so you could book a leg of your trip using Tigerair, and use Scoot for another part of the journey, and then fly home on another airline… If you so choose.

According to Tigerair CEO Robert Sharp, “It takes the pain out of [booking], picks up the best fare and presents it on one screen.”

You’ll even be able to sync your itineraries through the different carriers and access all their deals in the one transaction. Surely that’s got to be a win-win for any traveller?

As with most things ‘cost-related’ you can expect a price war between the airlines, including Jetstar and Air Asia. Industry analysts told the Sydney Morning Herald that you can expect prices to be slashed by up to one third.

Would lower prices encourage you to travel more? When was the last time you enjoyed a holiday?