TIGER Airways Australia yesterday restarted four-times-weekly domestic flights from Melbourne and Sydney to Alice Springs, answering requests from the Central Australian community for a low-cost travel option.
Flights depart Melbourne at 09.00 and return from Alice Springs at 12.20, arriving back in Melbourne at 14.55.
From Sydney, flights leave at 6.40 and arrive at Alice Springs at 10.00, leaving Alice Springs at 10.30 to reach Sydney at 13.15.
The LCC dropped its Alice Springs route a couple of years ago on safety concerns.
“We’ve been inundated with requests for Tiger’s low-cost flights to serve Central Australia, a community that currently lacks low-cost options and is so heavily reliant on tourism,” said Carly Brear, commercial director, Tiger Airways Australia.
Alice Springs took tops in a Tiger Airways poll that asked where the carrier should fly to next.
Chief minister of the Northern Territory, Adam Giles, welcomed Tiger’s resurrected service, saying: “Average occupancy rates in Alice Springs rose seven percentage points in 2010 when Tiger Airways was last in the market.
“Our research shows that Tiger Airways stimulated visitation by price-sensitive travel segments to Alice Springs and Uluru, improving the local tourism market.”
