Star Cruises has bought 20 per cent of Singapore budget airline Valuair in a deal that will allow the two companies to jointly offer fly and cruise holidays while helping to support Valuair's expansion in the region.
With the purchase, Star Cruises becomes the single largest shareholder in the budget carrier, which launched its first flights to Hong Kong earlier this year.
The two companies said in a joint statement yesterday that under the deal they would 'co-ordinate operations and jointly market attractive fly-cruise packages to provide passengers with a seamless, yet flexible, travel experience at attractive prices'.
Nilesh Pritam, a spokesman for Valuair, declined to say how much Star Cruises paid for its stake, adding that the carrier was still in talks with other potential investors.
'We're hoping for a bit more money to come, so we can't say anything about numbers while we're still negotiating with the other parties,' Mr Pritam said.
Valuair raised US$17 million late last year through a share sale to Asiatravel.com Holdings, a Singapore online hotel reservations company, and publishing firm Blu Inc Group.
It had targeted raising a further US$10 million this year to help it compete against budget rivals - Singapore Airlines' (SIA) Tiger Airways and Qantas Airways' Jetstar Asia - as well as with SIA and SilkAir.