Tiger Airways makes changes to recover lost ground

31 Jul 2012 05:38:11

theaustralian.com.au

It continues to lose money, and may do so for some time, but David has introduced changes that are helping it to claw its way back to profitability.

Tiger's first-quarter results, released on Friday, show the Australian operation narrowed its losses from $S23m ($17.6m) a year ago to $S21m.

Yield improved 11 per cent as it abandoned some of its less sustainable pricing. The results saw Singaporean parent company Tiger Airways Holdings's group loss drop from $S21m a year ago to $S14m as its Singapore-based airline returned an operating profit of $S4m.

The Australian figures reflect a 38 per cent cut in capacity.

Tiger had 10 Australian-based planes underutilised as the airline rebuilt its operations to pre-suspension levels. The first-quarter load factor was down seven percentage points to 77.4 per cent, although that has since moved into the eighties, David says.

Passenger numbers almost halved from 789,000 to 395,000. But Tiger is returning to fighting strength. It has expanded again beyond Melbourne to launch a base in Sydney and is planning to be back to a pre-grounding level of 64 services daily by October.

Tiger Airways Holdings chief executive Chin Yau Seng, the man seconded from Singapore Airlines to put the troubled group back on course, said the Australian operations had made good progress after "the hiatus in service" a year ago.

That hiatus, of course, was the grounding of the airline for six weeks over Civil Aviation Safety Authority concerns.

Read full story: theaustralian.com.au