Tiger Airways to purchase 20 Airbus A320 aircraft

Tiger Airways has confirmed that it is purchasing an additional 20 Airbus A320 aircraft, valued at US$1.3bn. This will bring the total number of aircraft operated by Tiger Airways from its bases in Singapore, Australia and Korea to at least 70 aircraft by 2016.

Tiger Airways operations from Singapore have chalked up impressive year on year passenger growth of 41.7% for the first half of the current financial year, based on a capacity increase of 32% over the same period. Tiger Airways Singapore now operates 19 international routes, with Xiamen, the airline’s 5th destination in China and new services to Chennai & Kochi in India, being added recently to its extensive network. The airline also plans to launch new services from Singapore to both Kuala Lumpur and Bangalore in 2008.

Tiger Airways Australia successfully commenced services on November 23rd and has launched services from its base at Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport to 7 destinations across Australia. By February next year Tiger Airways Australia aims to operate to every state and territory in the country, with the addition of services to Newcastle, Adelaide, Canberra and Hobart, with services between Melbourne and Alice Springs being added in March.

Group CEO Tony Davis said, “Tiger Airways has continued to perform strongly with fantastic year on year passenger growth in its 3 years of operations. This strong growth is set to continue with addition of these new aircraft, additional routes from both Melbourne and Singapore and more low fares. With our strong business performance, we have demonstrated that sticking to our business model really works.”

“With the successful launch of Tiger Australia, we have started the process of hunting for the 2nd Australian base and in 2008 will set up of our new operation in Korea with a base at Incheon, a joint venture between Tiger Airways and the Incheon Metropolitan City Council. Our strong track record has attracted a lot of interest from potential partners to establish more bases across Asia,” Davis added.

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