Tiger set to add destinations in India, Sri Lanka

dpa German Press Agency
Published: Wednesday November 1, 2006

Singapore- Tiger Airlines is seeking to fly to five destinations in India and one in Sri Lanka after receiving approval from Singapore authorities, the budget carrier said Thursday. Among the cities are exotic Goa on India's west coast, the commercial centre Kozhikode in the state of Kerala, Kolkata (Calcutta), Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Colombo in Sri Lanka.

"We have filed the necessary applications with the authorities in India and Sri Lanka and hope to progressively add the six new points to our network from next year," The Straits Times quoted chief executive Tony Davis as saying.

By the end of 2007, Tiger expects to have a fleet of 12 Airbus single-aisle planes and to fly to 21 points out of Singapore.

The carrier is a partnership between Singapore Airlines, state investment arm Temasek Holdings, the founders of Irish low-cost airline Ryanair and US-based marketing consultants Indigo Partners.

Tiger's foray into India comes as competitor Jetstar Asia is scaling back flights to Bangalore after dropping Kolkata six months ago and adding flights to Indonesia.

"We have had flights to Kolkata for some time, but we wanted to go into India in a meaningful way with multiple destinations instead of launching an isolated point," Davis told the newspaper.

© 2006 dpa German Press Agency