More cheap flights with new base: Tiger
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that budget airline Tiger Airways has pounced on a gap left by Jetstar in Adelaide, making the city its second Australian base.
Qantas announced last month the South Australian base for crew and pilots attached to its low-cost offshoot, Jetstar, would be shut down by the end of August.
The measures were designed to offset rising costs of jet fuel and difficult conditions in the aviation industry.
Tiger Airways has also recently axed services due to fuel and operating costs – cancelling flights to Darwin from Melbourne and Singapore.
But Tiger Airways Australia Managing Director Shelley Roberts said today that Darwin and Adelaide were very different examples and SA was a good choice for the airline’s second Australian home, after Melbourne.
“Darwin – the only place you can fly to – is pretty much Asia within a four hour flying distance. Adelaide presents many, many opportunities,” Ms Roberts said.
“Since we entered the market in Adelaide earlier in the year, we have seen that the market is generally underserved and constrained by the high fares that are in operation.
“So we know we can continue the low fare revolution in Adelaide.”
Setting up the second base is expected to almost double the number of annual low fare seats being made available in Australia to more than three million per year, she said.
Tiger Airways will boost services from Adelaide to Melbourne from next week and will base two new A319s in Adelaide from early next year.
Additional aircraft will be based there over the next eight years depending on consumer demand.
The airline would recruit over 50 cabin and flight crew for Adelaide, with former JetStar crew already lining up for jobs, Ms Roberts said.
Tiger Airlines, which hopes to set up at least five Australian bases in the next seven years, wants the public to tell them on its website which destinations to service from Adelaide.
More direct flights from Adelaide are likely to result in more than 10 million additional passengers using the South Australian airport over the next eight years, Tiger Airlines says.
Premier Mike Rann said the cumulative benefit to the state economy could be up to $100 million over 10 years.
“This will give interstate visitors more affordable opportunities to travel to South Australia for their holidays – injecting valuable tourism dollars into the local economy,” the premier said.
A Report by The Mole from The Sydney Morning Herald
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