Singapore Airlines (SIA), key stakeholder in the Tigerair low-cost carrier (LCC) Group, has taken a controlling interest in the LCC’s holding company and sold the Tigerair Australia offshoot to Virgin Australia for AUD1 ($0.88).
In what is effectively a bailout of the Tigerair Group, SIA has upped itsstake in Tiger Airways Holdings from a previous 40% to 55%. It announced a further “guaranteed buy” rights issue to raise some $190 million, which could boost its total ownership to around 70%.
These changes mark the latest elements of a major reorganization following Tigerair’s group loss of $177 million in the year ended March 31, 2014. Immediately after the losses were announced, new CEO Lee Lik Hsin was brought in from SIA’s executive team. “Many of the issues [leading to Tigerair’s losses] came from JVs [joint ventures] which simply didn’t work,” Lee told ATW. “That is about to change.”
Since Lee took the helm, the group has sold its Tigerair Philippines operation for $15 million to Cebu Pacific, closed down its Indonesian Tigerair Mandala subsidiary following a lack of potential buyers, and subleased surplus aircraft to other carriers.
Nonetheless, the latest figures show Tigerair is still loss-making. Tiger’s latest report shows a loss of S$182.4 million ($143 million) for the three months to Sept. 30, largely due to a S$99.3 million write-down on the sublease of ex-Filipino Tigerair Airbus A320s to Indian carrier IndiGo.
The sale of the remaining 40% of Tigerair Australia to Virgin will take another JV headache off the Tiger management’s plate. Tiger Australia has failed to make a profit for the last two years and saw a ban on flights three years ago after operational irregularities. “Given the ongoing subdued consumer demand in the Australian domestic market, the growth of the Tigerair Australia domestic fleet is likely to be reduced,” Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti said.
Lee said the new structure at Tigerair should now allow it to concentrate on being what he called “a broad no- frills airline that would tap into strategic alliances … into overseas markets.”
This points to an impending tie-up with Tigerair’s SIA sibling—the wholly SIA-owned Scoot long-haul LCC. Given the Competition Commission of Singapore’s recent green light for such an alliance and immunity from anti-trust suits for an alliance, the stage would seem to be set for a full LCC arm to be run out of Singapore Airlines.
With SIA’s new controlling interest in both, a joint long/short-haul LCC entity could deliver a much more targeted and operationally efficient product to compete with AirAsia in the region.
Lee hinted as much in a recent interview and stressed that Tigerair was looking at “going beyond a strategic alliance” with Scoot.
Singapore Airlines (SIA), key stakeholder in the Tigerair low-cost carrier (LCC) Group, has taken a controlling interest in the LCC’s holding company and sold the Tigerair Australia offshoot to Virgin Australia for AUD1 ($0.88).In what is effectively a bailout of the Tigerair Group, SIA has upped itsstake in Tiger Airways Holdings from a previous 40% to 55%. It announced a further “guaranteed buy” rights issue to raise some $190 million, which could boost its total ownership to around 70%.These changes mark the latest elements of a major reorganization following Tigerair’s group loss of $177 million in the year ended March 31, 2014. Immediately after the losses were announced, new CEO Lee Lik Hsin was brought in from SIA’s executive team. “Many of the issues [leading to Tigerair’s losses] came from JVs [joint ventures] which simply didn’t work,” Lee told ATW. “That is about to change.”Since Lee took the helm, the group has sold its Tigerair Philippines operation for $15 million to Cebu Pacific, closed down its Indonesian Tigerair Mandala subsidiary following a lack of potential buyers, and subleased surplus aircraft to other carriers.Nonetheless, the latest figures show Tigerair is still loss-making. Tiger’s latest report shows a loss of S$182.4 million ($143 million) for the three months to Sept. 30, largely due to a S$99.3 million write-down on the sublease of ex-Filipino Tigerair Airbus A320s to Indian carrier IndiGo.
The sale of the remaining 40% of Tigerair Australia to Virgin will take another JV headache off the Tiger management’s plate. Tiger Australia has failed to make a profit for the last two years and saw a ban on flights three years ago after operational irregularities. “Given the ongoing subdued consumer demand in the Australian domestic market, the growth of the Tigerair Australia domestic fleet is likely to be reduced,” Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti said.
Lee said the new structure at Tigerair should now allow it to concentrate on being what he called “a broad no- frills airline that would tap into strategic alliances … into overseas markets.”
This points to an impending tie-up with Tigerair’s SIA sibling—the wholly SIA-owned Scoot long-haul LCC. Given the Competition Commission of Singapore’s recent green light for such an alliance and immunity from anti-trust suits for an alliance, the stage would seem to be set for a full LCC arm to be run out of Singapore Airlines.
With SIA’s new controlling interest in both, a joint long/short-haul LCC entity could deliver a much more targeted and operationally efficient product to compete with AirAsia in the region.
Lee hinted as much in a recent interview and stressed that Tigerair was looking at “going beyond a strategic alliance” with Scoot.
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Singapore Airlines (SIA), key stakeholder in the Tigerair low-cost carrier (LCC) Group, has taken a controlling interest in the LCC’s holding company and sold the Tigerair Australia offshoot to Virgin Australia for AUD1 ($0.88).
In what is effectively a bailout of the Tigerair Group, SIA has upped itsstake in Tiger Airways Holdings from a previous 40% to 55%. It announced a further “guaranteed buy” rights issue to raise some $190 million, which could boost its total ownership to around 70%.
These changes mark the latest elements of a major reorganization following Tigerair’s group loss of $177 million in the year ended March 31, 2014. Immediately after the losses were announced, new CEO Lee Lik Hsin was brought in from SIA’s executive team. “Many of the issues [leading to Tigerair’s losses] came from JVs [joint ventures] which simply didn’t work,” Lee told ATW. “That is about to change.”
Since Lee took the helm, the group has sold its Tigerair Philippines operation for $15 million to Cebu Pacific, closed down its Indonesian Tigerair Mandala subsidiary following a lack of potential buyers, and subleased surplus aircraft to other carriers.
Nonetheless, the latest figures show Tigerair is still loss-making. Tiger’s latest report shows a loss of S$182.4 million ($143 million) for the three months to Sept. 30, largely due to a S$99.3 million write-down on the sublease of ex-Filipino Tigerair Airbus A320s to Indian carrier IndiGo.
The sale of the remaining 40% of Tigerair Australia to Virgin will take another JV headache off the Tiger management’s plate. Tiger Australia has failed to make a profit for the last two years and saw a ban on flights three years ago after operational irregularities. “Given the ongoing subdued consumer demand in the Australian domestic market, the growth of the Tigerair Australia domestic fleet is likely to be reduced,” Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti said.
Lee said the new structure at Tigerair should now allow it to concentrate on being what he called “a broad no- frills airline that would tap into strategic alliances … into overseas markets.”
This points to an impending tie-up with Tigerair’s SIA sibling—the wholly SIA-owned Scoot long-haul LCC. Given the Competition Commission of Singapore’s recent green light for such an alliance and immunity from anti-trust suits for an alliance, the stage would seem to be set for a full LCC arm to be run out of Singapore Airlines.
With SIA’s new controlling interest in both, a joint long/short-haul LCC entity could deliver a much more targeted and operationally efficient product to compete with AirAsia in the region.
Lee hinted as much in a recent interview and stressed that Tigerair was looking at “going beyond a strategic alliance” with Scoot.
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