By Rachel Chan

TIGER Airways is crying foul about its rival Jetstar Asia's advertising "$0" sale fares on its website since new rules set by the Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore (Asas) came into effect last Saturday.

The guidelines, which apply to online ads as well, require travel agents and airlines to show all-inclusive pricing in their advertisements. The latter must tell travellers how much their air ticket or holiday will actually cost, according to a recent Straits Times report.

The article also said that both low-cost carriers would support the move towards greater cost transparency by following the guidelines.

However, in a media release yesterday, Tiger called for Jetstar to "play by the rules".

At press time last night, Jetstar's website showed a banner for "44,444 free seats", in celebration of its fourth anniversary.

The webpage that appeared upon clicking on the banner showed "$0" fares for trips to 11 cities such as Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Siem Reap.

In contrast, Tiger and Air- Asia's websites now include taxes and fuel surcharges in stated pricings.

In a media release yesterday, Tiger chief executive officer Tony Davis said: "Tiger Airways has always said that it would comply with any requirement to show fully-inclusive fares, provided that any such requirement applied to all airlines.

"By failing to do so, Jetstar is seeking to mislead consumers and distort competition in a manner that treats the new requirements with contempt."

It wants Jetstar to provide a full refund of taxes and charges that were not included in the advertised fare to "unfortunate customers who have been misled".

Mr Raphael Saw, head of commercial at Jetstar, explained to my paper via e-mail: "Jetstar Asia definitely welcomes and embraces the new advertising guidelines and has every intention to adhere to them.

"Our fourth-anniversary promotion commenced on Oct 28 and straddled Nov 1. The promotion is slated to end on Nov 3."

He added that it "did not plan to have any print and radio advertisements on and after Nov 1 for this promotion" and would be "removing the banner from the website" by last night.

He also added that Jetstar has not received any complaints from consumers.

When contacted, Asas said that it had spoken to Jetstar and understood that its online ads would abide by the guidelines from today onwards.

With regard to penalties, Asas chairman Eleanor Wong said: "Should an advertiser not abide by the guidelines in the Singapore Code of Advertising Practice, we will, with the help of the media owners, suspend the advertisement.

"Should they continue to flout the guidelines, there is also the sanction of adverse publicity."

rachchan@sph.com.sg

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