Tiger Airways Holdings Ltd is all set for a growth next year, following a sluggish fiscal year ended March 31, which saw the group registering losses.
Its chief executive officer, Koay Peng Yen, said the group was confident of growth as its subsidiary, Tiger Airways Singapore, posted strong results for the first six months to Sept 31 2012, compared with the previous year corresponding period.
“Tiger Airways Singapore's third quarter, which corresponds to the quarter of the 2012 calendar year, is expected to perform well also, due to the holidays,” he told StarBiz.
For the first six months, Tiger Airways Singapore posted an operating profit of S$8.6mil against a loss of S$4.5mil in the same period of 2011.
For the same period, the group loss after tax narrowed to S$32mil from S$70.5mil recorded in the same period last year.
“Besides posting strong results, Tiger Airways Singapore also achieved the best running on time record in South-East Asia for 2012.
“We also completed 99.99% for all our flights, showing that we don't simply cancel flights in 2012. These achievements would help in our marketing strategies,” he said.
Tiger Airways' investments into Mandala Air in Indonesia and SEAir in the Philippines in 2012 are expected to bear fruit next year.
“As we are now airline partners in these two carriers, we can now better coordinate our networking to the 50 destinations we fly to.
“We have also expanded the number of carriers in Singapore from 12 to 19, which has helped the company to perform better in the first six months (ended Sept 31),” he said.
Koay said the group planned to add another 28 new A320 planes over the next 30 months, increasing the entire fleet under the company to 68 from 40 presently.
“We are also exploring increasing the flights to Penang, which is now running eight per week. India, Thailand, and Indonesia are the other high demand destinations, which we might increase our flight services in the near future,” he said.
On the impact of the global economic slowdown, Koay said it could be a blessing for Tiger Airways.
“During such times people would look for value-for-money airlines to travel and Tiger Airways is one of the leading choices.
“Our tickets are amongst the most competitive, as we sell seats only and not services that you don't need, which ensures that customers don't have to pay for inefficiency,” he said.
Tiger Airways had also recently launched the TigerApp software applications for both smartphones and tablets to facilitate bookings of flights by its customers.
“We want to lead the way as a new generation carrier, with the launch of innovative products for our travellers. The TigerApp is now one of the top 10 Android applications in the travel category in Singapore.
“We have also launched combo flights in 2012 that allow our customers to connect with the other destinations such as Sydney, Perth and Gold Coast via Singapore. “Such combo bookings can be done through a single reservation process,” he said.
Established in September 2004, the group comprises two fully-owned and two associated airlines.
The fully-owned airlines are Tiger Airways Singapore and Tiger Airways Australia.
The associated airlines are Mandala Air in Indonesia and SEAir in the Philippines.
Operating from Singapore and Australia, Tiger Airways' network extends to over 50 destinations across 13 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
SOURCE
Better days ahead for Tiger Airways. Koay Peng Yen is determined to bring the airline to greater heights.
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