Tigerair Taiwan (台灣虎航), a joint venture between China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) and Tiger Airways Pte of Singapore, on Wednesday said that it will stop flying to Singapore and Kota Kinabalu, capital of Malaysia’s Sabah state, next year to prioritize economic efficiency.
The budget airline’s new deployments for next year came after it lost NT$1.8 billion (US$57.31 million) since its launch in late 2013, or half its paid-in capital.
Starting on Jan. 3 next year, Tigerair Taiwan will terminate its routes between Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Singapore and Kota Kinabalu to focus on more popular routes to Macau, Tokyo’s Narita airport and Naha, Okinawa.
The airline said that passengers who had already bought tickets for those flights will receive a full refund within one month without having to apply for reimbursement, as well as a NT$500 coupon per person that can go toward the cost of tickets on other routes within six months.
Tigerair reiterated that it will go ahead with the introduction of its 10th new plane in January and continue to develop other flight routes.
However, CAL chairman Ho Nuan-hsuan (何煖軒) on Wednesday said CAL would will seek Tigerair’s closure if operations remain in the red.
Tigerair cannot be shut down without the agreement of the Singaporean partner under the current contract.
Ho said CAL has held talks with its Singaporean partner, which responded positively, and will strengthen its control of Tigerair by appointing Chang Hong-chung (張鴻鐘) as chairman.
Previously, the highest position that CAL could appoint was executive officer.
It is not known if the government will provide incentives for the development of local budget airlines.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) on Wednesday said that aviation is a highly competitive global industry and the government was determined not to intervene unless absolutely necessary.
Tigerair is the nation’s only low-cost airline after V Air (威航) ceased operations on Saturday last week.
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