In August 2016 it was announced that Tigerair would commence daily flights between Canberra and Melbourne, breaking the current Qantas / Virgin Australia duopoly on the route. However this isn’t the first time that the airline has flown into the national capital.
Under their previous name of Tiger Airways they previously served the route, with the first flight on 14 February 2008 marking the start of one return flight daily seven days a week, until the grounding of the airline in 2011 resulted in the route being dropped.
I travelled on one of these early flights, and boarding the plane at Canberra was what I expected from a low cost carrier – walking out onto the tarmac then climbing a set of airstairs.
At least the weather was fine, and both legs of my journey were on time.
But the irony is Tigerair is owned by Virgin Australia Holdings so business wise isn’t that taking two bites of the cherry for the shareholders from the same route?
Qantas has been doing the same thing with Jetstar for over a decade, but taking it a step further – such as withdrawing ‘full service’ flights from the Gold Coast, and replacing them with their low coast carrier:
http://www.ausbt.com.au/qantas-returns-to-the-gold-coast-3-x-daily-flights-from-sydney?PageSpeed=noscript