Tiger Airways To Increase Daily Flights, Add 45,000 Seats

MELBOURNE, Dec 17 -- The beleaguered Tiger Airways Australia expects to be flying all 10 aircraft in its fleet by the middle of next year, after adding two more this week. The Singapore-backed airline is increasing the number of daily flights it operates from 22 to 32 and it has added an extra 45,000 seats for next year. Airline spokeswoman, Vanessa Regan, told news.com.au that seven jets were now operational and hoped all 10 of the airline's planes would be flying next year. "While it has been a demanding year for Tiger Airways Australia the groundswell of our customer support has remained strong," Regan was quoted as saying. She said the key to winning back the public trust was its relaunched product, focusing on affordability, reliability and enhanced safety. Many commentators wrote Tiger off after its six-week grounding by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority for safety reasons this year. But the deep pockets of the airline's backers in Singapore and the availability of enough travellers apparently prepared to put the grounding behind them has given the airline enough space and time to start redeeming itself, The Australian newspaper said. Its new chief executive, Andrew David, told the newspaper that during this grounding period the company has invested in flight operations, in engineering, in quality, in safety. "All those areas are what the regulator wanted to see us invest in and they are the areas that we've spent time and money on. And now on the back of that investment I'm very confident to say we are safe, we are reliable, we are affordable," he said. -- BERNAMA