Tigerair Australia has introduced a new fare bundle called “Express” which allows passengers to add seat selection and priority boarding to their flight ticket at a discount.
This latest initiative adds to the recent moves Tigerair Australia has implemented in a bid to improve its financial performance.
Purchasing seat selection and priority boarding together would be 10 per cent cheaper than if they were bought individually, Tigerair Australia said on Thursday. The actual cost depended on the length of the flight.
“The Express Fare combination of these popular products is based on customer feedback and today’s launch is aimed at further enhancing the airline’s service whilst giving customers more of that they want for less,” Tigerair Australia commercial director Adam Rowe said in a statement.
“Our focus continues to be on in improving customer satisfaction through product innovations and the feedback we have been receiving from customers about the new-look Tigerair has been overwhelmingly positive.”
Qantas-owned Jetstar offers a number of fare bundles including seat selection, the ability to earn Qantas frequent flyer points and waiver of change fees, among other things.
Virgin Australia owns 60 per cent of Tigerair Australia and in October said it would purchase the remaining 40 per cent that it did not own from Tiger Airways Holdings in Singapore for A$1.
The low-cost carrier, which has never made a profit since starting operations in Australia in 2007, was expected to reach breakeven by 2015/16, Virgin chief executive John Borghetti told Wednesday’s annual general meeting in Brisbane.
“It is now in a position when compared to 12 months ago where the brand is much stronger than it was,” Borghetti told reporters.
“It’s operating efficiencies in terms of utilisation and new routes that it opened with bases in Queensland are all contributing to an improvement to the revenue line of Tiger.
“As that is occurring and we focus also on the cost line of Tiger and extract the synergies that the broader Virgin group of airlines can deliver, that’s helping obviously the profitability trajectory.”
Tigerair Australia this week also launched a new advertising campaign featuring a flying chicken promoting its “infrequent flyer club”, which targets those who do not fly often but were keen to grab great deals when they did travel.
There were more than 500,000 people on the infrequent flyer club database, Tigerair said.
The airline has also added online check-in, self-service kiosks at certain airports and revamped its website in recent months.
