Virgin Australia Holdings may deploy its Tigerair Australia (Melbourne Tullamarine) low-cost subsidiary into the trans-Tasman market following Air New Zealand's decision to drop its partnership with Virgin Australia (VA, Brisbane International) in favour of Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith).
"Not too far down the track, there's an option for us to bring Tiger into the market. Nothing to announce but it is an option that we have," Group Chief Executive Office of parent Virgin Australia Holdings Rob Sharp told CAPA.
Virgin representatives have since confirmed to Stuff that it is preparing to make "major announcements" in future but did not elaborate.
According to the ch-aviation capacity module, the network of the low-cost subsidiary of Virgin Australia is currently exclusively domestic with the trunk route Sydney Kingsford Smith-Melbourne Tullamarine being its main service.
For its part, Virgin Australia offers 72 weekly flights departures from Australia to New Zealand, serving Auckland International, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, and Queenstown International in the latter country. It also offers four weekly flights from Auckland to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands and two to Tongatapu in Tonga.
