What Happened To Singaporean Low-Cost Carrier Valuair?

Summary Valuair offered frills like baggage allowance and in-flight meals but struggled financially. Despite attempts, Valuair failed to secure funding and was forced into a merger. Valuair merged with Jetstar Asia to form Orange Star, keeping the brand but effectively becoming a Qantas-Jetstar Asia takeover.

As the name suggests, Valuair was a low-cost airline . There is often a motivation for full-service airlines like Singapore Airlines and Qantas to establish budget bands to target a greater market share without tarnishing their brand. While this worked for Qantas with its budget brand, Jetstar , it failed with Singapore Airlines's budget brand, Valuair.

Valuair only lasted around a year before Qantas' Jetstar Asia absorbed it and a decade before the brand was discontinued entirely. Valuair has been quickly forgotten - but what happened to Singapore Airlines' forgotten budget brand? What was Valuair about? Valuair was first established and commenced flight services on May 5th, 2004. This arguably made it Singapore's first low-cost carrier, as Tiger Airways started flight operations much later the same year (Tiger Airways was later merged with Scoot in 2016).

With the expertise of an ex-Singapore Airlines employee as its Chief Executive Officer, Valuair chose to differentiate itself by offering frills with every purchased ticket. These attractive frills included a 20-kilogram baggage allowance , in-flight meals, and a decently large seat pitch. The airline initially offere.