Virgin Australia stresses commitment to Tigerair Australia

Virgin Australia says it remains committed to its leisure carrier Tigerair Australia, refuting claims that it could be forced to shut down the airline due to ongoing losses. The carrier made the commitment after Mark Landau, managing director of global fund manager L1 Capital, which is a Qantas investor, told an investor forum in Melbourne last week that Tigerair Australia is losing money on many routes, and as a result Virgin will be forced to significantly cut capacity or shut it down. Strongly refuting the suggestion, it says: “Virgin Australia has no intention of shutting its budget carrier, Tigerair, and any suggestion is completely inaccurate and uninformed.” “Tigerair will continue to play a very important role as the budget carrier for the Virgin Australia Group now and into the future,” it adds. Virgin Australia has already announced cuts to Tigerair’s operations, with the airline to cease Brisbane-Darwin and Proserpine-Sydney services on 3 February 2020 and Adelaide-Brisbane from 29 March 2020.<br/>