Tigerair Australia, a company that owns only 13 planes, has lost around $29 million in the past three months – around $171k per plane, per week.
Virgin, which owns 60% of the airline, is no longer consolidating the company into its accounts, treating it instead as an associate, partly due to its large losses.
CIMB analyst Roland Yap expressed concern for the airline, pointing out the ‘heavy competition’ from rivals such as Qantas and Jetair Asia.
Despite also making losses of several million last year, Tigerair Australia still made purchases of two new planes in recent months, resulting in an even higher percentage of empty seats.
Virgin have been working with the airline in an effort to improve their fortunes, with Tigerair Australia doubling the frequency of flights from Sydney to the Gold Coast, while Virgin are to lower the frequency of their own flights along that route.
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