Tiger Airways shutdown causing havoc for tourism industry

The tourism industry is reeling after the airline safety regulator’s decision on the weekend to ground Tiger Airways for seven days, saying it couldn’t have come at a worse time.

The comments come as more than 35,000 passengers are expected to be stranded this week while the Civil Aviation Safety Authority prepares to enter into talks with Tiger over safety concerns.

Tiger chief executive Tony Davis was flying in from Singapore for crisis talks amid speculation that the airline may never recover.

The disruption comes after major airlines suffered more than a week of big delays after the Chilean ash cloud, which grounded flights for several days and cost airlines several million dollars.

Peter Grigg, general manger of the Central Australia Tourism Industry Association, says the shutdown “couldn’t have come at a worse time”.

“We really count on our carriers getting our numbers through and Tiger has been exceptional in our region given the number of flights they do every week. They’ve all been full,” he says.

“It’s been very worthwhile for our industry to have that connecting flight to the major capital cities. We were hopeful that Sydney would be included in that program as well.”

Grigg says the decision to ground the airline has come in the middle of an events season.

“We’re in the middle of our tourist season and next week we have the Camel Cup, and we’re going to have impacts on that already.”

Grigg says he has spoken to association members who have been busy trying to organise alternative flights for guests who won’t be able to make their accommodation bookings.

“It’s a kick in the guts,” he says.

The disruption comes as many businesses which opt to use the low-cost airline may have travel plans disrupted during the next week.

CASA said there were two separate incidents last month, when Tiger aircraft breached altitude safety limits, that caused the authority to become concerned.

The authority pointed out that it has been watching Tiger for the past year, when the carrier had been served with notices to improve its performance.

“Since Tiger Airways Australia was served the show-cause notice there have been further events raising concerns about the airline’s ability to continue to conduct operations safely,” a CASA spokesman says.

“In the circumstances CASA no longer has confidence in the ability of Tiger Airways Australia to satisfactorily address the safety issues that have been identified.”

Passengers can still make bookings and Tiger says customers with tickets up to July 9 can obtain a full refund or credit and that passengers with tickets for travel during the next week should not go to the airport.

Tiger, which started operating in Australia in 2007, has been the main discount player in the industry and has been cited as one of the downward pressures on price for other major carriers.

Grigg says the ongoing disruptions for airlines, including the Chilean volcanic ash, have hurt the industry and any prolonged shutdown – CASA says the grounding could possibly continue after July 9 – will put more pressure on the already beleaguered domestic tourism market.

“We’re already suffering with the high Australian dollar, although our domestic drive market is strong and really starting to build it dissipates from time to time,” he said.

“It’s not all doom and gloom for us here but the Tiger debacle was just a sham on the industry.”

Tiger has said it will update the market today on travel plans.