Peter Gleeson
16Jan08
TIGER Airways will cut fares from the Gold Coast to Melbourne to $39 later this month as it yesterday chalked up its 100,000th passenger in Australia.
After a series of teething problems before Christmas, which resulted in the cancellation of six flights, Tiger Airways says it has been 'plain sailing' since December 23.
"We've chalked up our 100,000th customer ... and much of that traffic has come from the Melbourne-Gold Coast link," said Tiger spokesman Matt Hobbs, adding that fares would be slashed as Tiger cranks up its bid to erode the market dominance of Jetstar and Virgin.
"We're really happy with the public's response to the airline," he said. "The Melbourne-Gold Coast route is our most intensive service."
Tiger is a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines and has been created to take on major domestic carriers Jetstar and Virgin, which command 96 per cent of the leisure market.
It now has three return flights a day into the Coast from Melbourne, its busiest route.
Mr Hobbs said passengers could today get a $59 one-way fare to Melbourne.
He said blitzkrieg advertising of cut-price fares from Jetstar and Virgin had dropped off during the holiday period. "We expect that to change over the next six months," he said.
Tiger Airways is looking to expand significantly over the next six months and it is looking to establish a second hub in Queensland, probably on the Gold Coast.
The plan is to have two aircraft initially, expanding to five planes within three years.
The decision to make the Gold Coast a second hub for the Singapore Airlines subsidiary will create extra employment, including pilots, flight crew, engineers and more routes out of the city.
During the cancellation debacle, Tiger each time blamed them on 'operational' constraints rather than mechanical difficulties but it was reported that sick employees were to blame.
Tiger said it had offered full refunds, or another flight on its service or another airline.
Twenty extra airline staff were employed just before Christmas.
A record 450,000 passengers came through Gold Coast Airport during December.
http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2008/01/16/6827_gold-coast-news.html
