Personally I am not looking forward to the stripey pussy entering the Australian scene, particularly if they operate in the same way they appear to be in Asia.
I have had need to book clients into and out of Padang in Indo over the last few weeks.
Complaints have come rolling in over grubby aeroplanes, inside and out and poor or missing onboard service.
Another nice little trick if you are booking on their overstressed website is that if your port pair is Padang Jakarta, there is nothing visible on the website to indicate that the flight is operated by Awair International, one of the carriers I believe was named as a no go zone by the Australian Government. The only way to tell in their website was the QZ flight designator. Not many Asian cannon fodder will pick that up. particularly if they do not fly much at all.
The 6 passengers I currently have in Indo for humanitarian support efforts, and another I have there supervising work on his charterboat have been copping schedule changes all the time. I am well aware that this is a possibility in any airline, but with Tiger it is starting to appear endemic.
To be honest, Garuda is starting to looklike the first choice they were prior to the JOG disaster, and can probably retain or regain that position the hard way. The hard fact is the mess at JOG and the tragic loss of life was probably the only way to break down the endemic rigid pecking order in GA. One would now lose face to follow a regime that cause a big mistake rather than use common sense and do the right thing. We can only hope.
I'm sorry but Tiger needs to be quarantined, vetted and probably speyed before it is let loose on the housing commission suburbs of Oz.
If they enter the market, good luck. I wish them no ill will. I just hope their operation is many steps above what my clients have been reporting within Asia.
Totally sick of not being able to rely on an even-close-to operation and having late night reissues/rebooks onto real airlines I had left a heap of connecting time onto.
Super Chicken summed it up.
Fred you knew the job was dangerouse when you took it!!!
Best all
EWL