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Tiger Airways Australia given green light to resume services

Originally published on www.businesstraveller.asia 10/08/2011 - Filed under: News »

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Tiger Airways Australia has been given the green light to resume domestic operations this Friday, August 12, but with a significantly simplified timetable and a smaller fleet in order to regain “the confidence and trust of its customers”.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority of Australia (CASA) grounded the budget carrier in July when one aircraft flew into Avalon Airport below the lowest safe altitude, raising serious safety concerns.  

Today, the carrier announced in a statement that CASA “discontinued its application in the Federal Court of Australia for an extension of suspension" because the carrier has worked with authorities to formulate a series of operating conditions that address safety concerns, which the carrier must comply with in order to resume services.

Conditions include recommencing with a simplified schedule and limiting operations to 18 sectors per day. The carrier will also consolidate its business into a single crew base, operating from Melbourne Airport (Tullamarine), therefore closing the Adelaide Airport crew base and temporarily suspending the Avalon Melbourne Airport crew base.

Initially, flights will resume between Melbourne and Sydney and “further network developments will be announced shortly.”

The carrier will also reduce the number of aircraft operated on commercial domestic routes from 10 Airbus A320 to eight.

In regards to passenger disruption, Tiger Airways said: “Passengers already booked to fly with Tiger Airways Australia from August 12, 2011, will be advised of any change to their travel plans as soon as possible.” Passengers whose flights will be affected by the new schedule will be offered “a range of options including a free of charge transfer to another Tiger Airways Australia flight of their choice, or if their flight is not operating, a full refund.”

For more information, visit www.tigerairways.com

Alisha Haridasani

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COMMENTS » 

ScottWilson - 10/08/2011 12:33

Tiger Airways was once the Singapore Airlines strategy to get into the Australian domestic market, now that there is a Singapore Airlines-Virgin Australia alliance, how long does it make sense to retain this operation, unless it can complement.

AsiaPacific - 11/08/2011 13:43

The biggest Issue as I understand it, is the break fees on the leases for the aircraft they currently have is in excess of usd$30M and the way the leases are written the aircraft cannot be re-deployed outside of Australia ... so they are in a Bind ...

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