Tiger Airways Australia resumed ticket sales today with a gradual return to scheduled flights from Friday August 12, after the embattled airline’s AOC was reinstated by CASA yesterday afternoon.
Tiger has implemented a drastically reduced flight schedule focused around its Melbourne base plus Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and the Gold Coast. Flights are expected to initially resume between Melbourne and Sydney, with Tiger to make an announcement on the resumption of further services “shortly”. The revised flight schedule is in keeping with a CASA imposed 18 sector per day restriction on Tiger for August, with the airline also set to reduce its fleet of 10 Airbus A320s down to eight. Services to Alice Springs, Darwin, Canberra, Cairns, Hobart, Mackay, Melbourne (Avalon), Rockhampton and Sunshine Coast have all been suspended.
“The airline is resuming services with a simplified flight program in order to focus on flying popular and profitable routes…The new flight schedule will initially consolidate the business into a single crew base operating from Melbourne Airport (Tullamarine) and as a result the crew base at Adelaide Airport will be closed and the crew base at Avalon Airport will be temporarily suspended,” Tiger said in a statement.
“All Tiger Airways Australia staff currently working at the Adelaide and Avalon crew bases will be offered redeployment to the Melbourne Airport (Tullamarine) operation,” it added.
The airline has reassured passengers booked on flights from August 12 that they “will be advised of any change to their travel plans and will be offered a range of options including a free of charge transfer to another Tiger Airways Australia flight of their choice”.
