Tiger to ditch flights out of Canberra

TIGER Airways is expected to stop flying out of Canberra as early as October, as it refocuses on taking on Qantas and Virgin Blue on the country's busiest route, between Sydney and Melbourne.

By InvestSMART · 10 Aug 2009

By InvestSMART ·
10 Aug 2009

TIGER Airways is expected to stop flying out of Canberra as early as October, as it refocuses on taking on Qantas and Virgin Blue on the country's busiest route, between Sydney and Melbourne.

The low-cost airline is not offering flights between Canberra and either Melbourne or Adelaide after early October. Asked about its plans for Canberra, Tiger's managing director Shelley Roberts would only say that it was reviewing its services to and from the capital city.

But industry insiders expect the Singapore Airlines-backed carrier to pull out of Canberra.

Tiger launched up to four services a day between Sydney and Melbourne last month.

The airline has since increased flights to as many as nine a day on the higher-yielding route and also launched daily services between Sydney and Adelaide. Qantas' low-cost subsidiary Jetstar has responded by doubling its services between Sydney and Adelaide.

Macquarie Equities has said that Tiger's increase in the share of the Melbourne-Sydney route to 10 per cent was likely to stifle any near-term recovery in airlines' yields. But other analysts have questioned how long Tiger will accept losses while trying to establish itself on the route. -- MATT O'SULLIVAN