Low-fare travel is sweeping Asia, the world's biggest aviation market, and airlines are scrambling to merge to survive or claim a stake.
There are more than four billion people living within five hours flying of Kuala Lumpur and Singapore and the region is home to the world's fastest-growing middle class.
Last week AirAsia, which is driving the low-cost phenomenon, effectively merged with Malaysia Airlines to better position the latter to compete, while creating a powerhouse that will offer travellers better deals.
Essentially Malaysia Airlines will focus on long-haul premium routes and AirAsia will take over all the domestic and regional flying.
According to the Sydney- based Centre of Asia Pacific Aviation, the historic tie-up could be a precursor to unprecedented consolidation in the Asian airline market.
In a special report CAPA said the deal, which would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, typically guarantees a host of flow-on impacts on the plans of other airlines and partnerships.
AirAsia, which started in 2002 with two planes and six routes, has developed into a giant in the region, with more than 90 planes and orders for hundreds more serving a network of more than 130 routes.
The first airline to respond to the threat of AirAsia was Qantas, which set up Jetstar in 2004. Jetstar now has close to 80 planes based in Australia or Singapore.
The Qantas Group move was astute because, at the time, low-cost airlines' share of the inbound/outbound Australian market was less than one per cent but has now grown to 20 per cent, of which Jetstar has 8 per cent.
At the same time Qantas' share has sunk from nearly 29 per cent to 19 per cent.
And both AirAsia and the Qantas Group are on the move to tap into the northern Asia market.
AirAsia, which has joint-venture airlines in Thailand and Indonesia, has recently moved to set up a joint-venture, low-cost airline with All Nippon Airways.
This week the Qantas Group announced as part of a five-year growth and restructure strategy that it would form a joint-venture Jetstar Japan low-cost airline with Japan Airlines and Mitsubishi.
To appeal to the higher end traveller the Qantas Group is also establishing a premium airline in South-East Asia with local partners.
That airline will not be called Qantas but will leverage on the Australian airline's skills and will draw passengers from markets such as China and either fly them around Asia or link them to Qantas flights to Australia.
For travellers all these initiatives give more choices; lower fares, more routes and better connections.
The impact of the lower fares cannot be underestimated.
On the Perth-Bali route the introduction of Indonesia AirAsia doubled traffic in two years.
That growth was mirrored on the Perth to Kuala Lumpur route when AirAsia X launched services three years ago.
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