A week after releasing strong financial year end passenger and
operating results, Tiger Aviation has confirmed plans for continued fleet expansion.
At the Industry Leader Luncheon Aerospace Forum Asia in Hong Kong
this week, President and Group Chief Executive Tony Davis announced that as the group is bringing forward the delivery
of aircraft to meet passenger demand for its low fare services, Tiger Airways will be
issuing a Request For Proposal to raise US$225 million in aircraft and engine financing. Consistent with its
business model, this will help the company lower its aircraft ownership costs to continue providing
low fares to passengers. Davis mentioned that invitations for financing
are being sent out this week.
Davis
said, “The sale and leaseback financial
arrangements have worked well for us; given our strong operating performance to
date, we are now in a position to explore other forms of financing to continue to innovate and leverage the
current business climate.”
Together with being the launch customer for Australia for the A319s, this RFP for the four A320s
signals Tiger Airways serious intention of expanding its route network rapidly.
This is the culmination of a successful year for Tiger Airways as the company transitioned
into a group structure with the launch of Tiger Aviation in September 2007 and the successful
launch of Tiger Airways Australia in November 2007, with work on setting up Incheon Tiger in
Korea underway.
See
other recent news regarding:
Travel News Asia, Tiger
Airways
|