Tigerair losses hold back expansion

Tigerair, formerly Tiger Airways, will focus on cutting losses at its subsidiaries in Indonesia, the Philippines and Australia before moving on to north Asia.

The Singapore-based low-cost carrier said it had no plan to grow farther than Shanghai but would add two destinations in south China by October to cash in on the nation's travel boom.

"We are very cautious now and won't get into fast expansion [as we did in the past]," Ho Yuen Sang, the newly appointed chief operations officer of Tigerair Singapore, told the South China Morning Post yesterday.

The company needs to absorb operations by Tigerair Mandala and Tigerair Philippines which were acquired by Tigerair's parent Tiger Airways Holdings last year.

Tigerair is expanding its mainland service as its rival Jetstar is reducing operations there, making Tigerair the largest low-cost carrier in the China-Singapore market, said Brendan Sobie, the chief analyst at CAPA, a Sydney-based aviation research firm.

New services to two mainland cities will be announced within the next three months, bringing total destinations served by Tigerair in the greater China market to eight. It currently flies to Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Macau, Taipei, Haikou and Shenzhen.