Singapore Airlines' (SIA) low-cost start-up Tiger Airways is preparing to launch scheduled passenger services in the coming months and has just taken delivery of its first aircraft, an Airbus A320.
Its second A320 arrives in August, to be followed by another two in December, says Tiger chief executive Patrick Gan, who confirms the company is leasing the first four aircraft from three lessors - Boullioun Aviation Services, CIT and GATX.
Tiger expects to have eight A320s in service in 2005 and 12 in 2006.
Charlie Clifton, an adviser to Tiger, says options were secured on an additional eight A320s in December last year, and the carrier expects to sign leases on these aircraft within the next two months.
Tiger executives remain tight-lipped about the launch date, although the company has applied to the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) for its air operator's certificate and petitioned some overseas airports for landing slots.
In Singapore, the airline will be operating from Changi airport's terminal one, but will move when the airport's new low-cost carrier terminal opens in early 2006.
So far Tiger is refusing to disclose publicly which destinations it has earmarked, except to say it will be cities within 4h flying time from Singapore and that it wants to have between one and four flights a day on each route it serves.
Gan says Tiger will be profitable within a year and will refrain from cannibalising market share from SIA, which has a 49% stake. Tiger will have a different business model from SIA and will target a different market segment, says Gan, who warns that increased competition will force some other airlines to fold. "Inevitably there will be [consolidation]. It is survival of the fittest."
LEITHEN FRANCIS / SINGAPORE
Source: Flight International
