Tiger Airways reports $7.75m profit
A report in The Australian says that Australia ‘s major shareholder is pleased with the start-up’s progress and says it is ahead of its business plan, with Singapore Airlines chief executive Chew Choon Seng also revealing at an analysts’ briefing in Singapore this week that Tiger Airways made almost $S10 million ($7.75 million) in profit in 2007-2008.
Tiger had previously released unaudited 2007-2008 figures but had declined to reveal its profit.
Its Melbourne-based Australian arm began flying late last year and is adding its fifth A320 to its 13-destination Australian network this month.
It is seeking to establish a second base in Australia and plans to add two 144-seat A319s to its local fleet later this year.
Mr Chew noted that Tiger was run as an independent company, but said the airline’s domestic operations in Australia were doing “reasonably well” and SIA was “reasonably pleased” with its progress.
“If you were asking for specifics, I am afraid that I would not be in a position to disclose other than to say that, at this juncture, Tiger Australia is running ahead of the business plans,” Mr Chew said. “So it is doing a lot better in terms of market penetration, in terms of the turnover, in terms of the cashflow.”
Singapore is also the second-biggest player in Australia ‘s overseas market after Qantas and has an 11 per cent passenger market share.
Asked about the airline’s strategy for Australia , Mr Chew described Singapore as “just another competitive airline” in the market.
“If some others are running scared of us, that is their problem,” he said.
He said the airline’s case for for tran-Pacific air rights beyond Australia was still there and it revisited it “every so often” to remind Canberra that the logic behind it was still valid.
“Qantas these days still operates beyond Singapore to London , to Frankfurt, and we are not allowed to fly beyond Australia ,” he said. “I rest my case.”
The SIA chief also confirmed the airline remained open to reasonable offers for its 49 per cent stake in Virgin Atlantic.
He said the investment made profit according to British accounting rules but a loss when adjusted to Singaporean accounting principles.
It was no secret that SIA regarded Virgin Atlantic as an underperforming investment and it was still reviewing its options.
“We are open to all reasonable offers, but as they say in the classified ads, no time wasters please,” Mr Chew said.
“In other words, if somebody makes us a reasonable offer we will be very happy to look at it, but we are not desperate.
“So if people think they can get it for a buck from us, that is a time waster.”
by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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