VA flags Sth Pacific Tiger

VIRGIN Australia has opened the possibility of future Tigerair Australia services to New Zealand and the South Pacific in an application to the International Air Services Commission (IASC).

The VA request seeks to vary a range of existing capacity determinations which would transfer current allocations held by Virgin Australia Airlines (SE Asia) Pty Ltd to a company called Virgin Australia International Airlines Pty Ltd (VIVA).

The changes are requested effective from 01 Oct this year and involve capacity allocations from Australia to New Zealand, the Cook Islands, the Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu.

“Virgin Australia has also requested that each determination is varied to authorise the use of the capacity by Virgin Australia International Airlines’ wholly-owned subsidiary, Tiger International Number1 Pty Ltd,” IASC said.

Tigerair previously operated international services from several Australian ports into Bali, but was forced to suspend the operation after a regulatory stoush with Indonesian authorities earlier this year ( TD 03 Feb).

Last year VA flagged the possibility of a subsidiary operating flights to NZ, Fiji, Vanuatu and the USA ( TD 12 Jul 2017) but a few weeks later withdrew the relevant IASC applications ( TD 04 Aug 2017).

A Virgin Australia spokesperson confirmed provisions for Tigerair had been sought from the IASC, but said the move was aimed at streamlining applications and “providing commercial flexibility in the future”.

“We have no plans (for Tigerair services to New Zealand and the Pacific) at this time,” the spokesperson said.