Tiger Airways Australia CEO Crawford Rix has stood down in the wake of CASA’s descision to seek to extend the grounding of the airline through to August 1.
“Tiger Airways Australia’s current CEO, Mr Crawford Rix, will leave the airline on 31 July 2011,” the airline said in a statement issued late in the evening of July 6.
“Mr Tony Davis, the group president and CEO of the airline’s parent company, Tiger Airways Holdings Ltd, will be appointed CEO of Tiger Airways Australia,” the statement continues.
“Mr Davis’ former responsibilities will be carried out by Mr Chin Yau Seng, executive director of Tiger Airways Holdings Ltd.”
Chin, a former CEO of Singapore Airlines’ Silk Air subsidiary, was appointed executive director of Tiger on July 4 in the wake of Tiger Australia’s grounding. Prior to that he was divisional vice president cabin crew operations for Singapore Airlines. (Singapore Airlines owns just under a third of Tiger Airways Holdings’ shares.)
Rix came to Tiger from UK low cost airline bmibaby, and replaced Shelley Roberts as Tiger Airways Australia CEO with effect from June 1 2010.
With the extension of the grounding, Tiger says it will “will refund fares to those passengers holding reservations between now and 31 July 2011. Tiger Airways offers its sincerest apologies for any inconvenience caused.”