Tiger Airways Wins Back Public Confidence

MELBOURNE, July 2 (Bernama) -- Low-cost carrier Tiger Airways says it has won back the confidence of authorities and the flying public a year after it was grounded for safety breaches. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) grounded Tiger's Australian fleet of 10 Airbus A320s on July 2, 2011, saying it believed permitting the airline to continue flying posed a serious and imminent risk to air safety. Speaking at its new Sydney base, Chief Executive Andrew David said the public and the regulator had shown they were back on board. More than a million domestic passengers had flown Tiger since it resumed operations on August 12, he was reported as saying by the Australian Associated Press. "A million people have flown with us," he said. "The regulator is very pleased with our progress. We've spent a lot of time getting the operation right," David said. He said Tiger had learnt from its mistakes and taken steps to ensure it had a strong safety culture. "It's about getting the culture right..getting a culture where when we get things wrong we learn from them. "We're transparent with the regulator, we (learn) and we improve," he added. David said the partly Singapore-owned airline had begun operating the first Sydney to Coolangatta service on Sunday. Services from Sydney to Melbourne and Brisbane will begin later in the year. Three A320 Tiger Airways aircraft will eventually operate from Sydney with the new base creating about 150 new jobs. Sydney is Tiger's second Australian base, adding to the one in Melbourne. -- BERNAMA