When to take a plane from Johor Senai Airport?

The Era of Budget Flying

With the introduction of budget airlines, Singapore is blessed with being the airport hub for the region and the transit point for ASEAN.  Flying is indeed cheaper compared to 20 years ago.  Malaysia and Thailand are also playing a catch up game but AirAsia, HQ in Malaysia Langkai, provides a superior customer experience and won the top Asia budget airline 10 years in a row since 2009.

Some are abandoning Changi Airport and go Johor's Senai Airport due to the high airport charges.  For a small group of 6-7 travellers, they may drive 50km to Senai Airport and fly for a short vocation and bear the jam in customs.  Is it worth it?  Where are the destinations that may cost cheaper?

Limitations of Discussion

We shall spell out the constraints presented before we move on to the data.  We shall look at the 6 months outlook of the cheapest flight tickets in both Singapore's Changi and Johor's Senai airports.  The data presented is a cross section dated today because we know airlines have a complicated system of determining fluctuating airfare prices.  Different airline companies also have different promotions at various periods.  Therefore, the key words are Cheapest, Changi or Senai, 6 month period and Date of Departure.  We cannot guarantee you may get the same pricing tomorrow or in the week/month in future.

Flying ASEAN

South East Asia consists of 11 countries with 650.5 million people in 2017 (Source: Statista).  Many budget airlines are introduced to get a slice of the market shares and this market is booming since 2010.  So how is Changi compared to Senai if we are taking a flight to the captial city of each country?

Capital Cities of Asean

Note 1: Myanmar's and East Timor's capital have no direct flight so they are omitted in this chart.

We noticed that the average prices is cheaper for Singapore ($148) despite the higher airport taxes than Johor ($236).  But Senai has a cost saving $39 from Johor to KL due to intercity flight as compared to International flight.

Popular ASEAN destinations

The next question is whether there is any cost saving for other popular Asean destinations.

Popular Asean Destinations (Exclude Capital Cities)

The above chart revealed that Senai offers the best deal to fly Alor Setar (RED) while Changi is the better option to fly to Da Nang and Phuket (GREEN).  It makes sense as the chart has many Malaysia destinations.  But the cost savings may not be sufficient to attract passengers to brave the custom jams and the 50km to Senai except for longer destination such as Ipoh and Alor Setar.

Asia Destinations

We are adventurous and Asean is not the limit.  Destinations below 7 hrs flight time is achievable by budget airlines.

Asia Destinations

Singapore, being the airline hub, begins to shine as we reach out to other Asia destinations.  There is huge cost savings flying to Port Moresby, Sapporo, Tokyo and New Delhi as highlighted in GREEN.  Surprisingly, we noticed that Senai offers cheaper flight prices to GuangZhou ($58 savings), Macau, Kochi, Moscow and Seoul.  For group/family travelling to these destinations, Senai may be a good alternative to save costs.

Worldwide Destinations

Let's venture into international airlines.

Worldwide Destinations

Except a small margin to Washington DC, Singapore Changi offers the best price to all other destinations.  The average cost widens from $725 to $1352 so Changi is the default choice for distant destinations.  For Wellington NZ, the saving is nearly $3k!!!

Date of Departure

After an overview of the cheapest airtickets in the coming 6 months, we cannot ignore other details.  Take for instance, the Wellington NZ case:

For Senai, it involves both NZ and Malaysia Airlines with 2 stops on both ways.

It departs on 9 Feb 7:15pm (17h20m with transits at KLIA, KUL and Auckland Airport, AKL) and returns on 15 Feb 7:45pm (21h25m with transits at AKL and KLIA).

For Changi, it involves Qantas Airlines with 1 stop on both ways:

It departs on 25 Mar 7:40pm (14h10m with transits in Sydney Airport, SYD) and returns on 1 Apr 6:45am (15h5m with transits in Sydney Airport, SYD).

Not only Changi offers a saving of nearly $3k, it is also has less hours of travel and less transit points.  Those who are staying in Johor may find it cheaper to come to Singapore and travel to Wellington instead.

*Note that the dates of departure are different because we are only considering lowest pricing in the next 6 months over date of departure.

Conclusions

We are lucky that Changi provides cheaper tickets to worldwide destinations.  However, Senai is able to fly cheaper to some cities within Malaysia.  For non-Malaysia cities, Senai may not be a good option considering the time travel and the potential jam at customs.  In the worst scenario, early morning flight may require a stay in the nearby Senai hotels which will erode the savings in airfares.  Well, it is also a horrible idea to carry 20kg of luggage on the return trip.  What say you?