Top

Go Back   The Australian Frequent Flyer Online Community > Community Resources > Travel News

Reply

Registered Users have the option of removing this and all other advertisements.  More

 
LinkBack Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 23rd November 2007, 01:11 PM   #1 (permalink)
Member
 
Standby's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 322
Tiger forced to delay Alice Springs launch

Tiger forced to delay Alice Springs launch
Steve Jones



Tiger Airways has slammed Qantas after being forced to delay the launch of services to Alice Springs by three months.

The low cost carrier was due to begin services on December 1 but will not start operations now until March 1.

Tiger directly blamed Qantas after the flag carrier said it would be unable to provide ground handling services for Tiger at Alice Springs airport.

Tiger chief executive Tony Davis said; “The behaviour of Qantas shows their contempt for the people of Alice Springs and certainly shows why Qantas is so desperate to maintain its dominance of the Australian domestic market.

“It is common practice in the aviation business for airlines to undertake ground handling for third party customers at commercial rates. Indeed, Qantas already handles a number of other airlines across Australia and was more than willing to accept Tiger’s money when we launched services to Darwin.”

Tiger said it spent months negotiating with Qantas, who it described as having a monopoly of ground handling at Alice Springs, and even offered to reschedule the timing of its flights.

The carrier will now organize for another ground handling company to establish itself at the airport.

“Unfortunately this takes time,” Tiger said in a statement.

Passengers with bookings will be refunded or can re-book on a flight after March 1. All affected passengers will also receive a $50 voucher towards a future flight.

23 November 2007

Let me think where in AUST does DJ and Qantas or JQ or vv...answer nowhere...what a naive expectation .Blame someone else for your own shortcomings.
And the offer of a refund and an extra $50 voucher to use on Tiger is slightly less than sorry we'll transfer you to another carrier as and answers a question in the thread earlier relating to poss delay start up.

Standby is offline   Reply With Quote

Sponsored Links
Save $200 on Qantas Club
Our GOLD members can join our Qantas Club Corporate Scheme & save $200

Save on Airport Parking !
Secure undercover parking, Free terminal transfers, Book On Line NOW

Dell Discount Codes
Use these discount coupon codes to purchase Dell equipment and save!

Registered Users have the option of removing this and all other advertisements.  More

Old 23rd November 2007, 01:27 PM   #2 (permalink)
Established Member
 
Shano's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Melbourne
Member of: QF Plat [LTS], UA MP
Posts: 1,213
Send a message via Yahoo to Shano
Re: Tiger forced to delay Alice Springs launch

Mods, maybe it is time to start a Tiger Forum to accommodate the growing number of Tiger threads ?

Oops, just realised that those are loyalty program forums not general airline forums
Shano is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 23rd November 2007, 01:33 PM   #3 (permalink)
NM
Moderator
 
NM's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Member of: AA Exec Plat; QF LTG; PC Plat; HHonors Gold
Posts: 11,440
Re: Tiger forced to delay Alice Springs launch

Quote:
Originally Posted by Shano
Mods, maybe it is time to start a Tiger Forum to accommodate the growing number of Tiger threads ?
Only Admin can create new fora.

But since this is a media article, I am moving it to the Travel Articles forum.

please note that for copyright purposes, it is best to only quote a brief part of the media article and to include the URL link to the original source.
__________________
NM aka Nelly Mobbs
NM is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 23rd November 2007, 02:43 PM   #4 (permalink)
Member
 
SeaWolf's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Perth
Member of: Velocity, QFF
Posts: 422
Re: Tiger forced to delay Alice Springs launch

Well, I'm not really surprised that QF is being unhelpful here, but I would have thought that if they were the monopoly ground handling company up there that they'd have some kind of obligation to provide those services, even if its fondest wish would be to see Tiger crash and burn.
SeaWolf is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 23rd November 2007, 02:50 PM   #5 (permalink)
New Member
 
sf#7's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 7
Re: Tiger forced to delay Alice Springs launch

I wld like to see a poll from ppl to see if they think Tiger will last here in OZ?
sf#7 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 23rd November 2007, 03:14 PM   #6 (permalink)
Junior Member
 
gstok's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Member of: Mileage Plus, Aadvantage, Qantas FF
Posts: 12
Re: Tiger forced to delay Alice Springs launch

Hmmm, I'm hoping to see more info on this. I've only seen it so far on The Age - not on Tiger or any other news source.

If I read it correctly Tiger had a pre-arrangement with Qantas to provide ground services. Qantas appears to have cancelled it at the last minute. This would explain their anger. And rightfully so.

I was supposed to fly Dec 1 - a mere 8 days away. I think Tiger is going to need to be more 'generous' to people flying in the first flights to cover any cancellation charges they may not be able to avoid. The 'travel insurance' excuse will not hold up well here.

With approx. 200 passengers per flight, and 3 months worth of flights, there's going to be a lot of unhappy campers.

Will Tiger last in Oz? I think so, absolutely. They have a large backer, and their IT services are 6000% better than Jetstar. No crashes, no pathetic sales with a lousy number of seats, no servers that go down during high load, and so on. Good luck to them I say.
gstok is offline   Reply With Quote

Sponsored Links
Free Nokia E63
Free Nokia E63 Smartphone on a $29 Cap Plan + FREE FIRST 3 MONTHS

Affordable Magazines
SAVE 20% plus on Magazines with a 12 month iSubscribe subscription.

Dell Discount Codes
Use these discount coupon codes to purchase Dell equipment and save!

Registered Users have the option of removing this and all other advertisements.  More

Old 23rd November 2007, 03:36 PM   #7 (permalink)
Established Member
 
docjames's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Brisvegas
Member of: QF Silver (16.3% LTS); UA MP; Velocity
Posts: 1,090
Re: Tiger forced to delay Alice Springs launch

Well, you want to service anywhere that has a monopoly, you've got to be prepared to pay full whack. If you're not, either
1. Pay it
2. Set up your own (which takes time)
3. Pay it until #2 is complete.

You need skill and training to be ground crew, and i'd suspect the cost of keeping someone with appropriate skills in a town like Alice Springs would be fairly high.

Did they expect to get the service for chicken feed? They're subsidised at every other airport that's gagging for them to fly there. Maybe they've underestimated the costs of flying to/from Alice Springs.

Also, if they've released such a statement, dont expect Qantas Group to take it lying down either.
docjames is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 23rd November 2007, 04:26 PM   #8 (permalink)
Senior Member
 
oz_mark's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Melbourne
Member of: QF FF, SQ KF, DJ Velocity, MH enrich
Posts: 8,196
Re: Tiger forced to delay Alice Springs launch

Quote:
Originally Posted by docjames
Well, you want to service anywhere that has a monopoly, you've got to be prepared to pay full whack. If you're not, either
1. Pay it
2. Set up your own (which takes time)
3. Pay it until #2 is complete.

You need skill and training to be ground crew, and i'd suspect the cost of keeping someone with appropriate skills in a town like Alice Springs would be fairly high.

Did they expect to get the service for chicken feed? They're subsidised at every other airport that's gagging for them to fly there. Maybe they've underestimated the costs of flying to/from Alice Springs.

Also, if they've released such a statement, dont expect Qantas Group to take it lying down either.
In my reading the problem is they can't get Qantas to provide the service at any price, although it sounds as though Tiger was under the impression that the service would be available to them. They would hardly announce a service without some belief that they would be able to provide the service.

I guess the difference between Alice Springs and other airports is the other airports seem to have multiple providers of ground handling services.
oz_mark is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 23rd November 2007, 04:57 PM   #9 (permalink)
Mal
Senior Member
 
Mal's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: London
Posts: 5,386
Re: Tiger forced to delay Alice Springs launch

Problems with flying to Alice were actually dicussed here a couple of days ago. Amazing how AFF keeps ahead of news channels at times

There is probably more to this story than what is published.
Mal is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 23rd November 2007, 07:51 PM   #10 (permalink)
milocole
Guest
 
milocole's Avatar
 
Posts: n/a
Re: Tiger forced to delay Alice Springs launch

if i was Mr Davis, i would try to have nothing to do with Qantas, GO TIGER!!! (only18 hours or so to my TT flight!!!)

  Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Tiger hits a snag: ‘proving’ flight postponed futaris Open Discussion 105 23rd November 2007 09:20 AM
The McDonald's of the Air - Tiger Airways mbeder Open Discussion 14 30th July 2007 10:30 AM
Distance MEL to Alice Springs / Ayers Rock rpmsol Your Questions 6 28th March 2007 03:02 PM


All times are GMT +10. The time now is 12:37 PM.


Powered by vBulletin Version 3.8.1. Copyright ©2000 - 2009, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
SEO by vBSEO 3.3.0 RC2 ©2009, Crawlability, Inc.
Bottom

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98