Tigerair Australia is planning a return to Canberra with a daily service linking the nation’s capital to Melbourne.
The low-cost carrier made the announcement at Canberra Airport on Monday, with Tigerair chief executive Rob Sharp flanked by Canberra Airport chief executive Stephen Byron and ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr.
“We have witnessed overwhelming demand and are proud to provide the only low cost services between Canberra and Melbourne,” Sharp said in a statement.
“We are confident the new route will prove popular for our core market of budget and leisure travellers.”
The first flight was due to take off on December 9, with flight times and fares to be released later in the week.
Under previous owners Singapore-based Tiger Airways Holdings, the airline then known as Tiger Airways Australia started Melbourne-Canberra flights in 2008, but the route was dropped after the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) grounded the airline for six weeks in 2011.
The airline has since been sold to Virgin Australia and been rebranded as Tigerair Australia.
Canberra Airport chief executive Stephen Byron said the return of Tigerair to Canberra would help boost tourism in the ACT and give the territory’s residents a LCC option for travel to the rest of Australia.
Tigerair will be the only LCC at Canberra Airport, which is served by Virgin, Qantas and FlyPelican.
The airport is also counting down to the start of international flights out of Canberra, with Singapore Airlines’ (SIA) four times a week Boeing 777-200 Singapore-Canberra-Wellington service due to begin on September 21.
