Australia’s aviation safety regulator will call for a court order to keep Tiger Airways Australia grounded until August 1.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority will apply to the Federal Court in Melbourne Thursday morning to seek an order to extend the airline’s licence suspension, originally imposed on safety grounds for five working days from last Saturday.
Thousands of passengers who have booked flights on the airline for this month will have their travel plans disrupted.
“If CASA completes its investigations and determinations before 1 August 2011 and is satisfied Tiger Airways Australia no longer poses a serious and imminent risk to air safety it may be possible for it to resume operations earlier,” the regulator said in a statement.
“CASA is making the application to the Court because investigations into Tiger Airways Australia will not be completed by the end of the initial five working day suspension period,” it said.
Tiger Airways Holding’s boss Tony Davis flew from Singapore this week to try to convince the safety regulator that the airline was in fit to fly in Australia.
