Tiger Air’s first bite at domestic market
TIGER Airways will offer flights from Melbourne to Darwin for $80 one way from December.
Tiger chief executive Tony Davis’ announcement marks the official start of the Singapore Airlines-backed carrier’s assault on Australia’s domestic market.
Jetstar struck back, bettering Tiger’s offer with flights from Melbourne to Darwin for $79.
The announcement came as Jetstar’s parent company, Qantas, announced its earnings result and said 2006-07 profit before tax was in line with market expectations.
Its strong load figures have led analysts to increase their forecasts since the last upgrade in March.
At the time, Qantas predicted a $940 million pre-tax annual profit. Yesterday, the median of analyst forecasts calculated by Bloomberg predicted a record $1.06 billion pre-tax profit.
Until now, Tiger had refused to reveal when its domestic services would start or what routes it would fly, despite naming Melbourne as its home base two months ago.
Mr Davis said one-way tickets for the daily Melbourne to Darwin flight, which are on sale, would cost $79.99. Flights would start on December 1.
“Tiger Airways is pleased to offer our first domestic route, linking our home base of Melbourne and our international gateway of Darwin,” Mr Davis said.
Tiger will also offer “Flight Combo” fares between Melbourne and Singapore for $499 return.
Jetstar will drop the price on its Melbourne to Darwin flights from an average of $189 one way to $79.
“Tiger seems to have rolled out one of the cubs or a domestic cat to get things rolling,” Jetstar spokesman Simon Westaway said.
“They certainly aren’t single-digit fares, which they were talking about before.”
Mr Davis said Tiger would be adding further routes to its domestic network over coming weeks.
With Scott Rochfort
