Slimmed down Virgin Australia kills off budget brand Tigerair

Tuesday, 05 Aug, 2020 0

Virgin Australia has outlined its new strategy under the new ownership of Bain Capital.

It is ditching the budget Tigerair Australia brand and will transition to an all-Boeing 737 fleet.

That means an end to long-haul flying in the short term.

It will offload ATR 72, Boeing 777, Airbus A330 and Airbus A320 aircraft.

The restructure will ‘help to re-establish Virgin Australia and bring strong competition for the traveller’, said CEO Paul Scurrah.

"Demand for domestic and short-haul international travel is likely to take at least three years to return to pre-Covid-19 levels, with the real chance it could be longer, which means as a business we must make changes to ensure the Virgin Australia Group is successful in this new world."

The airline said it will continue suspending flights to Los Angeles and Tokyo but hopes to restart some long-haul flights sometime in the future when demand picks up.

It sees a future for business travel, and plans to reopen its airport lounges when demand picks up.

The new changes mean the airline will have to downsize and said it will have to cut a third of its workforce.

That will lead to the loss of about 3.000 jobs.

By Ray Montgomery, Asia Pacific editor

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TravelMole Editorial Team

Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.

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