After 13 years of operation, Tigerair has officially been shut down as an airline and brand in Australia due to the impact of COVID-19.
In an announcement sent to Tigerair customers via email yesterday, Virgin Australia’s new owners Bain Capital said the airline and brand would now be discontinued due to the impact of COVID-19.
“There is no denying these are tough times for everyone in the travel and tourism industry,” the statement said.
What if you had a Tigerair booking or credit?
The good news is that customers who had previously purchased tickets for Tigerair flights will be able to use “Future Flight” travel credits for flights operated by Virgin Australia.
Virgin Australia says they will allow unlimited changes to any bookings until the end of January 2021, making credits relatively flexible for the Christmas period which could be handy.
Tigerair customers with credits will also be able to earn Velocity Points, something that never happened with Tigerair flights so that’s a bonus.
The not so great news is that Tigerair says credits won’t be available to use until September 23 this year and will be eligible for bookings up until July 31, 2022.
Virgin Australia’s new owners Bain Capital had said they would shut Tigerair down in August as part of their takeover proposal.
The airline had struggled financially before COVID-19 hit with Virgin Australia making all 220 Tigerair pilots redundant as part of a round of layoffs that saw more than 1000 workers lose their jobs when the pandemic hit.
And so comes the end of another travel brand era. Tigerair first flew in Australia in 2007, flying passengers from Melbourne to the Gold Coast.
Since then, remarkably, more than 30 million customers have flown with Tigerair all over Australia.
Farewell Tigerair.
Find out more via Tigerair’s Customer Support Portal.