Profile... Jetstar's Chong heightens customer experience

Chong Phit Lian certainly stands out. The first thing you notice about the 57-year-old CEO of Jetstar Asia is her bright red jacket. “I love the colour red, and it’s cold in the airport,” she says with a chuckle.

With a friendly demeanour and an open manner, Chong seems to exude the values that she wants to see in her airline. “We travel to a lot of regional destinations which are fun, so our values are all about fun, value and comfort.”

It is easy to be misled by Chong’s jovial personality. In fact, it is clear that she has thrived in senior roles on the basis of her management qualities. Poh Teck Tan, deputy to the CEO of Singapore Business Federation and a former colleague, calls her “a strong leader and a people person”, attributing her success to a strong business acumen. “She is able to spot opportunities and has a special skill in turning businesses around.”

That seems to be the case with Jetstar. When Chong took over at Jetstar Asia in 2006, the airline had been through three CEOs in a year. But she took up the challenge and transformed the airline into a profitable venture within two years.

Chong’s background is at Government companies - she was in the public sector for nearly 20 years. She says that the transition to the travel industry was not difficult. “In terms of functionality there is no difference. I used to be a CEO and I am still a CEO. ”

The industry has not disappointed her, as it is “fast paced, never boring with lots of opportunities”. One of those opportunities, Chong points out, is the recession. As the number of people flying low-cost carriers has increased, so have their understanding of Jetstar and what it stands for.

“Airfares have dropped a lot and our overall yield has gone down, says Chong. “But more people now have a better understanding of us. I think our value proposition is that we give the best price, but we do not compromise on comfort in terms of on-time arrival and booking ease.”

The recession means that the airline has had to invest much more in advertising and promotion. To support the next phase of growth in Asia for Jetstar, it launched a through-the-line campaign in July, which used Singaporean celebrity Joanne Peh as its brand ambassador. The airline also recently launched a price guarantee scheme. “We have had to do lot more promotion. In terms of reaching out to our customers we have be more innovative in our approach towards communications and marketing,” Chong confesses.

A big focus for Chong at Jetstar has been improving customer experience, and several initiatives have been launched to achieve that. A new feature called ‘Best deal finder’ was recently introduced on Jetstar’s website. The airline also shifted its departure point to Terminal One at Singapore’s Changi Airport to escape the discomforts of the budget terminal.

Anupriya Acharya, CEO of Aegis Media Singapore, an agency that works on the Jetstar Asia account, confirms that Jetstar’s recent campaign performed “very well”. She adds: “As we move forward, we are quite confident of continued strong growth figures and are very happy to be partnering them.”

Under Chong’s leadership, the airline has also embarked on ambitious growth plans. The airline recently rolled out interline services with affiliates Jetstar Australia and Qantas in the hopes it will attract more passengers. Chong says that Jetstar Asia will have additional fleet by the last quarter of this year and is planning new destinations in parts of India and China, on top of a new Singapore-Haikou route, which will launch on 16 December.

When asked about rivals such as AirAsia and Tiger Airways, all fighting for a piece of budget carrier market share, Chong momentarily loses her openness. “Competition is always there,” she says guardedly. “It creates a lot of demand. If there is no competition then demand will go down as well.”

A media source says: “Jetstar is a new entrant compared to Air Asia and its customers are more savvy, urban people. It definitely has a better image than Tiger Airways.”

However, despite Jetstar’s competitive prices he says its operations are still behind AirAsia as far as its network and fleet are concerned. The source adds that since Jetstar Asia is hubbed from Singapore it is “most appealing for Singaporeans”. A challenge the airline now faces is to build on a market and customer base that stretches regionally.

Chong Phit Lian’s CV
2006 CEO, Jetstar Asia Airways, ValuAir, New Star, Singapore
1990 Various roles at Government companies, including: CEO, Singapore Mint; CEO, Singapore Precision Industries; CEO, Safe Enterprises Group, Singapore



This article was originally published in 10 September 2009 issue of Media.