Qantas Airways Ltd. is revamping business-class services as Virgin Blue Holdings Ltd. and Tiger Airways Holdings Ltd. threaten its 90 percent share of Australia’s corporate travel market.

The nation’s biggest carrier will refurbish airport lounges, develop new food menus and revamp business-class cabins, Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce said Friday in an interview at a conference in Sydney. The carrier is also implementing new technology to make it easier for frequent flyers to track their bags, check in and avoid queues, in a bid to retain clients.

“It’s about raising the bar for what business travelers can expect,” said Joyce, 44. “This isn’t a defensive strategy – it’s about setting the pace to keep our customers.”

Virgin Blue has also begun developing plans for overhauling premium services in a bid to double its share of Australia’s domestic corporate travel market from 10 percent. The carrier is targeting business flyers as competition from low-cost airline Tiger and Qantas’ budget unit Jetstar crimps leisure fares.

“We’ve made no secret of the fact that we are chasing a share of the lucrative business market,” Liz Savage, Virgin Blue’s head of commercial activities, said Thursday. She didn’t elaborate further on the Brisbane-based company’s plans.

Australian air fares have tumbled since Singapore Airlines Ltd.-backed Tiger Air began flights in the country in 2007, with discount fares falling more than a third, according to a government-run index.

The budget carrier is now aiming to lure business travelers with low fares, as it shuns perks including frequent-flier programs and business lounges.

“Customers looking for value will come to us,” Crawford Rix, Tiger’s Australian head, said in an interview Thursday. Business lounges are “financial black holes with mood lighting,” he said.

The carrier has had limited impact in the corporate market because of a greater focus on leisure travel. In May, it wasn’t included among a list of domestic airlines approved for use by politicians, advisers and bureaucrats in a shakeup of government travel after it sat out of the tender process.

Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Blue were included in the list.

Tiger has helped drive down fares by having the lowest costs in the market, according to Citigroup Inc. Excluding fuel, it costs Tiger 2.75 Australian cents to fly each seat a kilometer, compared with 5 cents for Jetstar, 5.75 cents at the Qantas-brand carrier and 6.25 cents at Virgin Blue, Citigroup analyst including Shavarsh Bedrossian said in a July 16 note. (Bloomberg)