The Australian subsidiary of Singapore's Tiger Airways plans to increase its flights to Sydney from Melbourne and Adelaide after adding another aircraft to its fleet in October.
Tiger Airways Australia, which began flying on the Sydney-Melbourne route on 3 July, will increase the flights on that sector to nine-daily from four-daily on 4 October. It is due to launch daily Sydney-Adelaide services on 31 July, and plans to increase that to twice-daily from 4 October as well.
A spokeswoman says that Tiger will put another Airbus A320 into service in Australia from October, giving it seven aircraft in the country. She adds that there has been a lot of demand for tickets on both routes.
The carrier, however, faces stiff competition. According to Innovata, Australian national carrier Qantas Airways has 70 flights per week on the Sydney-Adelaide route while its low-cost subsidiary Jetstar has seven a week. Virgin Blue, the other major airline in Australia, has 35 per week. Tiger will have 14 a week after the increase.
The increase on the Sydney-Melbourne route will give Tiger 63 weekly flights in the sector. However, according to Innovata, Qantas has over 210 weekly flights between Sydney and Melbourne's main gateway Tullamarine International Airport. Jetstar has three weekly flights to Tullamarine and 41 to Avalon, Melbourne's secondary airport. Virgin Blue has 164 weekly flights to Tullamarine.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
