Tigerair Australia

The arrival of Tiger Airways Australia in the market resulted in varied responses from its primary competitors, mainly Qantas (and its subsidiary Jetstar) and Virgin Australia. Jetstar was particularly vocal, with its then chief executive Alan Joyce quoted as saying "Tiger and what they have done have come across as a joke, and will probably continue that way".[43] He claimed that Tiger was losing over SGD$60 million over the previous two years of operations out of Singapore.[44]

Air fares began to drop as special offers and other promotions were launched, such as Jetstar's announcement that it would "double the difference of any competitor's fare that is cheaper than its own fares".[45] This was soon followed by a bonus system to entice its customers to stay with the airline.[46]

Tiger Airways Australia had previously been quoted as planning to offer "single digit" one-way fares when it began service. The announcement of $80 flights from Melbourne to Darwin was met with criticism from Jetstar.[47]

Virgin Australia considered the possibility of establishing a low-cost offshoot to fend off Tiger Airways.[48]

In a bid to increase its share of low-cost traffic, Melbourne Airport announced plans to cut usage fees soon after Tiger's announcement of establishing a hub there.[49] Tiger's mention of New Zealand as a potential market raised concerns in that country.[50]

Just days before the launch of Tiger Airways Australia, Jetstar offered 5,000 seats on 21 November 2007 for the price of five cents, inclusive of taxes, on seven domestic routes, costing the airline $25 per seat. Jetstar claimed that the sale has nothing to do with the Tiger launch, while at the same time referring to them as "competitive". Jetstar's spokesman, Simon Westaway, was quoted as saying that Tiger Airways "are a good airline in their own right. We are not going head to head. We respect them for the competitor that they are going to be".[51]

On 23 November 2007, Tiger Airways criticised Qantas for being unable to provide ground handling services to the airline at Alice Springs Airport, forcing it to delay its launch to the city by three months to 1 March 2008. The airline had promised to pay any cost to Qantas, but services were still denied. Qantas executive general manager John Borghetti responded by saying "assisting competitors is not part of my job description".[52]

Tiger Airways Australia celebrated its first anniversary on 19 November 2008 with a "Free Seats" campaign, which resulted in 100,000 seats on sale, of which half sold out within the first few hours.[53] The airline celebrated its second birthday on 23 November 2009 with thousands of seats on sale for $2.

Tiger Airways Australia was founded by Tiger Airways Holdings. In October 2012, Virgin Australia Holdings announced it had agreed terms to purchase a 60% stake in Tigerair Australia for $35 million. Tigerair and Virgin said they would spend up to $62.5 million on Tiger Australia to increase its fleet from 11 aircraft to 35 by 2018.[54] Tiger would operate as a low-cost subsidiary of Virgin Australia. On 23 April 2013, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission ACCC announce that it would not oppose the sale. ACCC chairman Rod Sims said that Tigerair would be "highly unlikely to remain in the local market if the proposed acquisition didn't proceed".[55] In October 2014, Virgin Australia Holdings purchased the remaining 40% of Tigerair Australia.[29]

The airline statistics for the 2012–2013 year showed that of the major Australian domestic airlines (Qantas, Jetstar, Virgin Australia, Tigerair), Tigerair achieved the second lowest level of on-time departures for 2012–13 at 79.6%, a significant drop from 2011–2012 figure of 89.5%, but ahead of Jetstar at 75.6%. This result was also reflected in arrival performance, where Tigerair achieved an on-time arrival rate of 76.3%, ahead of Jetstar at 76.1%. In the same period for the major domestic airlines, Tigerair had the lowest cancellation rate for the 2012–2013 year, at 1.2% of flights cancelled.[56]

The lairline statistics for 2015 revealed that 84.1% of Tigerair Australia services departed on time in 2015, a record for the airline over the course of a year. In comparison, Tigerair's main competitor departed on schedule 76.2% of the time on like-for-like routes. On like-for-like routes, Tigerair Australia was also three times more reliable than its key competitor when it came to cancellations in 2015. Tigerair Australia cancelled 0.9% of flights in 2015, compared to 2.9% for the key competitor on the same routes. Tigerair Australia recorded the airline's best ever on time departure statistics in February 2016, with 93.3% of services departing on time.[57]

On 11 February, erroneous data was suspected to have been put into a flight computer.[58]

On 3 March, a traffic collision avoidance system alarm was triggered after one of Tigerair's A320s flew too close to a smaller aircraft.[58] Following this, Tigerair was issued with a "show-cause" notice for pilot training and maintenance. Spokeswoman Vanessa Regan told news media that "There is no cause for concern.[59] CASA [the Civil Aviation Safety Authority] has taken no action. We continue to operate and we want to reassure our customers that there is no risk to safety and we continue as normal".[60]

On 7 June, a Tigerair aircraft descended below the minimum altitude near Melbourne Airport.[61] On 30 June, another Tigerair aircraft flew below the published minimum altitude near Avalon Airport.[62] On 1 July, a further Tigerair A320 from Brisbane to Melbourne flew too close to a Boeing 767.[58]

On 2 July, Tigerair Australia was suspended from flying by CASA due to "various" safety concerns.[63][64][65] The grounding coincided with school holidays in New South Wales and Victoria. News agencies estimated that 35,000 people may have been affected.[66] It is estimated that Tigerair would lose $4.2 million for every week of suspension.[58]

Special conditions were imposed on its Air Operator Certificate giving Tigerair 60 days from mid June to complete instrument rating renewals. This direction was extended to all of its pilots.

A spokesperson for CASA, Peter Gibson, told the media that "Tigerair has not been able to, at this stage, convince us that they can continue operations safely, so that's why they're on the ground". Citing a view that future problems would also occur, he also commented that "We [CASA] believe this is symptomatic of problems within the airline [and] we've put them on the ground while we consider all these issues".[67]

Tigerair stated that it was co-operating fully with CASA.[59]

On 6 July, CASA announced that it would lodge a request for extension to the suspension until 1 August at the Federal Court in Melbourne, while CASA continued to investigate, after the investigation raised more questions into Tiger Airways Australia, and until CASA was satisfied that the airline "no longer poses a serious and imminent risk to air safety".[68][69] Consumer regulators, such as the ACCC, warned Tigerair Australia that the airline needed to inform customers who purchased tickets about the uncertainty as to whether the airline would be flying from 9 July.[69] Tigerair Australia suspended its ticket sales on 5 July, however the ACCC's chairman, Graeme Samuel, stated that Tigerair Australia's "lack of response until that point was far from satisfactory".[69]

After five weeks CASA lifted the ban and Tigerair Australia recommenced operations on 12 August, but only for 18 flights a day between Melbourne and Sydney. Tigerair announced it was suspending operations from Avalon Airport and would close its Adelaide base altogether in a "commercially motivated" decision. It also said that it would reduce its fleet to eight aircraft.[70][71][72]

On 22 October 2012 CASA announced it was issuing a new safety certificate and lifting all restrictions placed on Tigerair Australia, as it was now satisfied the restrictions were no longer needed.[73]

The Air Ways TV series created by the Seven Network followed the day-to-day operations of the airline.[74] It had a similar premise to the successful UK factual television series Airline. The series, while not always portraying Tigerair in a positive light, did much to promote the airline. The TV programme was axed in 2012 due to low ratings.

Tigerair Australia recommenced services in 2011 out of a single base in Melbourne. In July 2012, a second base was opened at Sydney Airport. A third operating base was then opened at Brisbane Airport in March 2014.[75]

Tigerair Australia expanded into short-haul international flights when Virgin Australia transferred some of its services between Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth and Denpasar on the Indonesian island of Bali to Tigerair from 23 March 2016. These services use three Boeing 737-800 aircraft, wet leased from Virgin Australia and using Virgin's air operator's certificate and flight crew, with Tigerair providing the cabin crew.[31] On 3 February 2017 Tigerair ended flights to Bali, citing approval issues with Indonesian authorities.[37]

On 16 May 2016, Tigerair Australia joined Value Alliance, the world's largest low-cost carrier alliance. The new alliance was started alongside the Philippines' Cebu Pacific, South Korea's Jeju Air, Thailand's Nok Air and NokScoot, Singapore's Tigerair and Scoot, and Japan's Vanilla Air. It left the alliance in 2018.

In November 2016, Tigerair sought approval to operate expanded international services under its own air operator's certificate using both A320s and 737s.[76]