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Tiger Airways Australia will add a number of frequencies from Melbourne and Sydney next year, amidst reports that it is looking to move to Avalon.
From January 2010, the carrier will add from Melbourne an extra weekly service to the Sunshine Coast, an extra daily service to Hobart, six weekly to the Gold Coast and three additional weekly services to Adelaide. The carrier also announced on October 30 that it will add a second daily service between Sydney and the Gold Coast from early February 2010.
“With the additional flights between Sydney and Gold Coast, Tiger Airways will be flying 162 weekly services through Sydney from early 2010. That’s equivalent to over 1.5 million seats annually to/from Sydney, making Sydney one of our top domestic destinations – a ‘virtual base’ for Tiger,” said managing director Shelley Roberts.
Meanwhile, a report by the Herald Sun newspaper claims that the airline has also been involved in talks with Linfox to move some or all of its flights to Avalon Airport, west of Melbourne. Tiger spokesperson Vanessa Regan said that the airline was in “continual discussions with all airports about its growth strategy”, while a Linfox spokesman declined to comment.
Jetstar has used Avalon for many years as a secondary airport servicing Melbourne, but in recent years it has transferred a number of services to Tullamarine in order to compete with Tiger. Jetstar now only operates five daily services from Avalon to Sydney and three times daily services to Brisbane, although Qantas CEO Alan Joyce told reporters during a press conference in August, “We still think there are huge opportunities at Avalon, it’s still a great destination for Jetstar.”
