8 Asian budget airlines team up to form 'world's biggest' low-cost group

Soon, you'll be able to view and book flights from eight budget airlines without opening multiple tabs to tally prices and schedules.

The world's largest low-cost carrier group now comprises Singapore's Scoot and Tigerair, Tigerair Australia, Cebu Pacific in the Philippines, Thailand's Nok Air and NokScoot, Jeju Air in South Korea and Vanilla Air in Japan. 

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Together, the eight have christened the group Value Alliance, and cover 160 destinations in Southeast Asia, North Asia and Australia -- or a third of the globe.

Travellers will be able to book flights across the eight in one itinerary. On the backend, the system is powered by a new UK-based tech firm called Air Black Box, which NokScoot put $1 million into.

The platform will allow deeper booking options like selecting seats and purchasing inflight meals.

Scoot, Nok Air and their alliance, NokScoot, are hooked up to Air Black Box's system, and the rest of the eight will come onboard in months.

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With the collaboration, it's hoped that the carriers will be able to take on larger budget operators like AirAsia and Jetstar, which reach further destinations and have larger fleets.

AirAsia has a reported 15% share of the budget market, and Jetstar has 9%.

It seems clear that Value Alliance is positioned to take the two on, and doesn't plan to join forces with them.

At a press conference, Scoot's chief, Campbell Wilson, was quoted saying: "Would we want to share (broadened reach) with other airline groupings? We are doing this for our own strategic reasons.

"The fact that you don't see some airlines here is self-explanatory," he said.

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