Tiger adds 3 A320's for Domestic Operations

As SEAIR Expands

June 6, 2012

Singapore - Low-cost carrier Tiger Airways Holdings Ltd. (Tiger) is adding three (3) Airbus 320's to Southeast Asian Airlines (SEAIR) for its operation in the Philippines as it finalise a sale and purchase agreement to acquire 40% of the airline for USD7 million. The investment will be held through Tiger’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Roar Aviation II Pte Ltd.

In a statement, the airline said that its new plane will start arriving by the fourth week of July and third week of August, and will be operated by Southeast Asia Airlines (SEAIR) for its domestic and international operations.

"The investment in SEAir is in-line with our strategy to develop the business into a pan-Asian one, one that will enable us to leverage on the strength of our Singapore base and scale up the size of our business across the region," said Tiger's chief executive officer Chin Yau Seng, in a statement. 

SEAIR will fly the new A320 jets to major domestic points in the Philippines. It recently announced the commencement of flight to Cebu starting July 31 followed by Tacloban, Kalibo, Iloilo and Puerto Princesa out of Ninoy Aquino International Airport's Terminal 4. It will also fly to Bacolod, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, and Tagbilaran before yearends.

"This is SEAIR’s largest network expansion" says airline President Avelino Zapanta who added that they were not affected by the moratorium of new flights out of NAIA because the route they applied was suspended in 2010 due to cabotage complaints by other carriers. The ban was lifted in 2011 but it is only now that they are using the landing rights out of NAIA because of delay in regulatory approvals.

"That is one advantage our competitor never got" says Zapanta, referring to Air Asia Philippines.

"We expect these new routes to contribute one million passengers annually as we add new seven domestic destinations," he added.

SEAir carried 210,670 passengers on international flights and 124,468 for domestic flights in 2011. However, its domestic market share has been dwindling fast standing at the first quarter of 2012 at 10,037 passengers, down by 78.59% from last year’s figure of 46,879.

Meanwhile, its international passenger traffic is up by 80.67% from last year’s figure of 35,509 recording 64,157 international passengers from January to March this year.

The airline operates flights to Batanes, Caticlan, and Tablas using 4 dornier 328 Turboprops. It also fly to Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Kota Kinabalu from Clark Airport using 2 Airbus A319s under the Tiger Partner Airline programme.

Tiger’s investment in the Philippines is the second joint venture it entered in Asia, following its acquisition of a 33% stake in Indonesia’s Mandala Airlines in January 2012.