Tiger Airways awarded CAPA Low Cost Airline of the Year

Experienced aviation advisory panel recognizes carrier for industry leadership in product innovations and performance

Tiger Airways, Singapore’s low fare airline, has been named Centre of Asia-Pacific Aviation (CAPA) Low Cost Airline of the Year (2006). The airline was selected from amongst Low Cost Airlines (LCC) in Asia Pacific and the Middle East region to receive the CAPA Aviation Award for Excellence.

The CAPA Aviation Award recognises Tiger Airways as the LCC that has been the most innovative and influential in the airline industry in the region, showing leadership through strategic positioning and expansion and development of new markets and its network, whilst keep operating costs at the lowest possible levels to maintain stable revenue streams.

Asia Pacific airports and airlines are reviewed constantly through the year via CAPA’s extensive data and information services gathering and reporting.  A highly experienced aviation advisory panel then reviews CAPA’s recommendations before deciding on a worthy recipient of the award.

“Tiger Airways has carved out a place for itself in an extremely competitive market, and shown it can innovate. We congratulate them on being named CAPA Low Cost Airline of the Year”, said Peter Harbison, Executive Director of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.

Accepting the award, Tiger Airways CEO Tony Davis, said: “We are extremely excited to win this prestigious award! 2006 has been a year of tremendous growth and development for Tiger Airways. We have moved to the new Budget Terminal and are experiencing strong passenger growth. In addition to a fleet expansion with new aircraft deliveries and purchases, Tiger Airways has also established its first overseas base in the Philippines in a marketing agreement with Philippine airline, SEAir.”

“This is a recognition of the innovations developed by Tiger Airways in the past one year. We have successfully launched several new initiatives, such as Luggage Upsize and Flight Combo to offer extra value and convenience our customers. In addition, we have looked at new ways to keep costs down and partnered with Giordano in a unique uniform collaboration.

“Tiger Airways has also successfully launched services to previously under-served and  secondary airports around Asia, and together with local stakeholders, developed them into popular destinations. Out of the airline’s 16 routes, Tiger Airways is the only airline to operate seven of these routes,” .added Davis.
The airline launched its services with a fleet of four brand new Airbus A320 aircraft in 2004 and by 2010, it is expected to expand its fleet to 20 aircraft. It has recently carried its 1.5 millionth passenger and is ahead in its plans to hit the two-million mark before year-end.  Tiger Airways is the only Low Cost Carrier to win an award from the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) as a top 10 airlines at Changi Airport by passenger carriage in 2005.

The airline is not hesitant to take bold decisions. In March 2006, Tiger Airways was the first and only low cost carrier to move its base of operations to the newly built Budget Terminal to enjoy cost savings. This strategic move has resulted in 500,000 passengers utilizing the Budget Terminal within six months, boosting Tiger Airways passenger volume by more than 80 per cent. Tiger Airways also appointed Swissport International Ltd as its dedicated ground handler for its Singapore operations at the new Changi Budget Terminal. Swissport has an impressive track record in handling ground operations for successful low cost carriers in Europe and North America and the airline was confident that Swissport would provide the ground support needed to take Tiger Airways into its next phase of growth.

Tiger Airways’ success is due to its close adherence to the ‘proven’ low cost carrier (LCC) business model. This model allows the airline to offer consistent low fares to passengers by adopting savvy features such as on-line booking through the internet to reduce distribution costs, operating a single aircraft type to reduce maintenance and operational costs, focusing on short haul flights for faster turnaround and providing minimum frills.