VIRGIN Australia has moved to assure the competition watchdog that its alliance with Singapore Airlines will not dilute competition with Tiger Airways Australia.
Australia’s second-biggest carrier is seeking approval to form a marketing alliance with Singapore Airlines, which has a 33 percent stake in Tiger Australia’s Singaporean parent company.
Responding to questions from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, Virgin’s lawyers said the alliance would have no effect on Virgin’s “incentives to compete with Tiger Airways”.
They also gave a cool assessment of Tiger’s operations, noting its service levels were very low, it had poor customer satisfaction and was voted Australia’s worst domestic airline in Choice’s 2009 and 2010 airline satisfaction surveys.
Virgin also points to poor on-time performance before Tiger’s suspension by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority as well as poor levels of safety and management oversight.
“While Tiger Airways’ fares were low, they did not represent good value in terms of the level of service offered,” the lawyers’ response said.
