Singapore-based low cost airline Tiger Airways has announced plans to commence daily flights from Singapore to Perth in May, bringing the start date forward six months.
Singapore-based low cost airline Tiger Airways has announced plans to commence daily flights from Singapore to Perth in May, bringing the start date forward six months.
The company, which will commence flying the Perth-Singapore route four times per week on March 23, had planned to launch its daily service in November.
Tiger chief executive Tony Davis said the large number of advance bookings on the existing services were popular enough to justify the expansion..
WA Tourism Minister Sheila McHale said the expansion would be a significant boost to the WA Tourism Industry.
The full text of an edited announcement from Tiger Airways is pasted below
Tiger Airways, Singapore's low fare airline, is bringing forward its plans to operate daily Singapore-Perth flight services by six months to 1 May 2007.
Tiger Airways, which is starting flights to Perth from Singapore on 23 March 2007, will initially be operating four flights per week. The airline had originally only planned to beef this up to daily flights in November 2007.
Tiger Airways had planned to add additional services during the peak holiday periods from March to October 2007 but the advance bookings on its existing services are proving so popular the airline has decided to expand to daily services much sooner than expected.
"The response from travelers in Singapore and Australia to our low fares Singapore-Perth flight services has been overwhelming. With the encouragement and support of the Australian Tourism authorities, we have decided to accelerate the introduction of a daily flight service and launch this in May 2007 instead of November 2007 as originally planned," said CEO Tony Davis.
"With return fares from Singapore starting from AUD 290/SGD 320 (including taxes and charges), traveling between Singapore and Perth has never been as affordable," Davis said.
Western Australian Tourism Minister Sheila McHale said she was delighted with the news. "Singapore is our second biggest source of visitors, so the expansion of Tiger Airways flights to Western Australia is a significant boost to our tourism industry. Each year about 57,000 visitors from Singapore travel to WA and that should increase significantly as holiday makers take advantage of Tiger Airways' low prices," she said.
"Historically, low cost carriers have been successful in boosting tourism activity by offering competitive fares and attracting visitors who have not previously traveled much. Western Australia should also benefit from an increase in visitor numbers from markets other than Singapore as Tiger Airways expands its flights into our emerging markets like China," she said.
A joint marketing campaign in Singapore between Tourism WA and Tiger Airways has just been launched and will run through until June 2007 incorporating press and online advertising, promotional activities and journalist and travel industry familiarization trips.
