Travel across Southeast Asia cheaply with these 8 low cost airlines.
Traveling across Southeast Asia can be pretty cheap, especially if you buy your tickets early. Here’s a guide on the popular low cost airlines and the best websites to use to find the cheapest fares.
1. AirAsia
AirAsia is one of the pioneers of budget airlines in Asia, and has one of the largest line-ups of destinations across the Asian continent. Their main hub is in Kuala Lumpur, so you will probably find yourself at KLCC airport during one of your layovers.
AirAsia also has an AirAsia Asean Pass where passengers can use pre-paid credits to book flights within the network.
2. Jetstar Asia
Jetstar Asia serves the Australia-Pacific and Southeast Asia. You can also earn Qantas frequent flier points when flying with Jetstar.
3. Tigerair
Tigerair is the former title holder of the acclaimed CAPA Low Cost Airline of the Year award (2006 and 2010). The airline’s hub is in Singapore, and has routes across Southeast Asia, India and even the Maldives.
4. Scoot
Scoot is a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines and have routes serving Southeast Asia, China and Australia. Scoot’s planes are generally larger and more comfortable than the other low-cost carriers.
5. Nok Air
Nok Air is Thailand’s domestic low cost airline, connecting several Thai cities from Chiang Mai all the way down South to Phuket.
6. Vietjet
Vietjet is an international low cost carrier from Vietnam. Once a domestic airline, Vietjet now connects Ho Chi Minh and Singapore for as low as SGD29.
7. Lion Air
Lion Air is an Indonesian low cost airline with routes connecting Jarkata and Singapore. Lion Air has had some accidents in the past and was previously investigated for safety issues.
8. Cebu Pacific
Cebu Pacific is a Philippines low cost airline and was one of the original low-cost airlines. Besides serving the domestic market, Cebu Pacific also flies to Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Airline Hacks
Looking for the cheapest flight from point A to B? Below are flight search engines that offer the best rates for Southeast Asia. Don’t forget to use incognito mode to avoid tracking cookies by airline companies and get cheaper flights.
Scotland-based Skyscanner shows a graph-like results page detailing available dates and price ranges. From there, users can simply select their desired price points and available flights, which leads to different airlines showing up on-screen.
Cheapflights is a travel metasearch engine which compares flight prices from thousands of airlines and online travel agents.