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?

JB for petrol?

Update: The latest changes on the new Toll Rates for Johor Causeway effective 1 Oct 2014 is reflected in the calculation.

50% cheaper?

Did someone tell you that Malaysia's petrol is at 50% discount as compared to Singapore?  It is as attractive as the Great Singapore Sales (GSS)!!!

With this belief, many are faithfully and patiently queuing up driving north just to top up petrol believing that they are saving money especially when the exchange rate is at Singapore's favour.  Especially now with S$1 = RM 2.61.

Indeed, petrol is termed as the black gold and the world's supply of petroleum is now lower than the world's demand.  Though Singapore is a world famous refinery centre of oil, the selling price of petrol is more than twice of its neighbouring countries.

Unfortunately, this may not be true if you check your wallet at the end of the month, the saving may even be LESS. Why?

Worth or not?

While you stop and move in jams when coming back to Singapore, have you wondered if it is worthwhile to drive up just to pump petrol and back?  Are they worth the 3 hours (inclusive of dinner) you spent in jams?

Every cars are different but the transport costs are similar:

1. Travel from home/office to JB and back still consume petrol for the car.  If you stay in Woodlands, consider yourself lucky but for those who stay in Changi, you are paying more to drive to JB;
2. Costs of tolls in both Singapore and Malaysia customs (PLUS card).  For second link, you have to pay again when you are driving back to Singapore;
3. 3/4 tank legal requirement for Singaporean vehicle driving out of Singapore; and
4. Fuel efficiency of your vehicle plays an important part especially if you are caught in jam.  With engine and air-con running, petrol are still being consumed even if the car is at a halt.

So there must be a purpose if you wish to drive north for petrol else the cons might outweigh the pros.

Classic examples

For instance, Alex (blog: http://loganized.blogspot.sg/2011/05/pumping-petrol-in-malaysia-how-much-do.html) was surprised that he had a saving of S$3.13 for a May trip in 2011.  If you look closely, he is gaining virtually nothing as he failed to factor in the toll charges imposed by both customs (~S$2.50).

If he wasted 2 hours in the jam, there is literally no saving if we factor in the depreciation of the car and its parts in the long run. There are many who have similar experiences and continue to drive in like Alex.  Are you one of them?

Some employed tilting of cars in attempts to pump more petrol (URL: http://www.sgwayoflife.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1536).  It claimed that pump attendants said the total saving is S$1.30 to S$2.20 for small/mid cars and S$4 for MPVs.  Is this working for you?

In Perspective

Instead of guessing and listening blindly, it is good for us to know what are the actual savings we have if we just go JB for petrol.  We are pleased to offer you a one-time offer to calculate your savings by entering your details below.

Please give us 3 working days to get back to you as we are not working full time on this blog.

Know your mileage. Know you savings.  We hope everyone can benefit from this exercise.