Tiger Airways launches second base in Sydney

Today also marks the commencement of services on Tiger's new Sydney - Gold Coast route with up to four daily return services providing over 1,400 daily additional visitor seats through Sydney and Gold Coast airports.

Tiger Airways CEO Andrew David, who was at Sydney Airport to greet passengers flying on the first of the new Sydney - Gold Coast services, said that while today's news is not only great for consumers, domestic tourism and the economy, it is also a major milestone for the airline, which has been rebuilt in the past 11 months since services resumed on 12 August 2011.

"Today is an opportunity for Tiger to celebrate our accomplishments over the last 12 months whilst, importantly, we also reflect on our responsibilities as a credible and viable operation."

"Our formative years are behind us," said Mr. David. "Tiger has grown and we are now moving on with a great value service that all Australian travellers should try at least once. The million plus domestic passengers who have flown with us since we resumed operations have provided overwhelming support for the relaunched product.

"We're proud of the airline today that provides affordable and reliable air travel and later today we'll launch our first ever Australian television commercial to help spread the word."

To encourage customers to travel with the relaunched airline and celebrate the launch of the new Sydney base Tiger Airways is today putting on sale 10,000 seats for $10* for travel now on the popular Melbourne - Sydney route. In addition, many other popular routes across Australia are on sale today for great value fares including Sydney - Gold Coast from $30, Brisbane - Sydney from $40 and Melbourne - Perth from $80. The sale goes live to the public today at around midday AEST.

Three aircraft will progressively operate from Tiger's second Australian base in Sydney, providing extra capacity on existing services between Sydney and Melbourne (up to 11 daily return services on the Melbourne - Sydney route) and the opportunity to expand services such as the new routes between Sydney and Gold Coast and Sydney and Brisbane commencing respectively in July and August 2012.

Tiger Airways has now led the major domestic airline industry for ten straight months with market leading on time performance, an accomplishment which Andrew David also sees as indicative of Tiger's future success as more Australians choose to fly with Tiger.

"We have the newest fleet of aircraft in Australia and our pilots are some of the most professional and experienced in the industry," said Mr. David. "We have a great product and as more Australians are given the opportunity to try us we think they will like what they find."

TIGER AIRWAYS REMAINS COMMITTED TO PROVIDING SAFE, AFFORDABLE, RELIABLE AIR TRAVEL WITH FRIENDLY AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICE.

Key facts:

• Tiger Airways' fleet of A320 Aircraft is the newest in Australia (average age of the fleet is under four years of age).
  The modern fleet is fuel efficient and provides comparatively low carbon emissions.
• Tiger Airways already employs more than 350 people in Australia in various roles including cabin crew, pilots, management and through maintenance and ground handling partnerships.
• New Sydney base creates around 150 new employment positions in Sydney.
• Tiger Airways' pilots are some of the most experienced professionals in the industry with the majority exceeding more than 10,000 flying hours.
• A large proportion of Tiger's Captains have more than 20,000 flying hours experience.
• New Sydney base will provide up to 10 daily return services (20 daily flights or 3,600 visitor seats daily) through Sydney Airport when all three aircraft are operational from September 2012.
• Three A320 Tiger Airways aircraft will progressively call Sydney home from 1st July 2012, 1st August 2012 and 1st September 2012.
• An 11th aircraft for Australia will arrive in August 2012 to be based in Melbourne.
• Tiger Airways Holdings is partially owned by Singapore Airlines. The Australian domestic airline confirms a new maintenance partnership with
• Singapore Airline's Engineering Company (Australian based) to assist the airline with engineering capability from Sydney initially.
  Further network and other operational developments to be announced in due course.