Tiger’s out-of-the-air period for Australian domestic flights continues to expand. The earliest date it will now hit the air is Friday August 5, and even that seems far from certain.
Flights on Tiger were already suspended through July, and it has offered refunds to anyone flying in August. It will now automatically refund fares for anyone booked for between August 1 and 4 who hadn’t already asked for a refund (though anecdotes suggest that those refunds can be rather slow to appear).
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has presented Tiger with a list of conditions it must meet to be allowed to resume flights, and both CASA and Tiger seem confident that they can settle those issues without requiring court action. Nonetheless, the future of the budget airline seems anything but clear.
We’ve already seen reports that Tiger will pull out of Avalon, and there’s now speculation that Tiger will cut back on the routes it flies locally when it is finally allowed to fly again. Given the brand damage the closure has caused and the fact that there are plenty of other ways to score cheap flights, I’ll personally be surprised if Tiger is still operating in Australia by the end of the year. What do you think?
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