It has been announced on Thursday 7 July that Tiger Airways has been grounded for longer following the extension of its flying ban to the end of the month.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) will apply through the courts to extend its suspension of Tiger Airways until Monday 1 August as it examines masses of information regarding the airline's safety procedures.
While the scope of the investigation has not expanded, the safety issues are more complex than they initially appeared.
For Central Queensland passengers, this further flying ban may mean that Tiger Airways will not return to Rockhampton and Mackay, following Tiger's recent decision to cease flying to these ports from the start of August (Blog post HERE).
Also, just hours after the flying ban was extended, Tiger issued a short statement saying its chief executive Crawford Rix will finish up at the airline as well. His replacement is Tony Davis, the group president of Tiger Airways Holdings and the man who was sent from Singapore to lead the talks with CASA.
On Saturday 2 July, CASA slapped a week-long flying ban on Tiger Airways because it believed the budget airline posed a "serious and imminent risk" to air safety.
The now month-long extension throws serious doubts on the airline's survival in Australia.
Tiger has said it would not oppose the ban extension but remained committed to getting back into the air as soon as possible.
Lastly, Tiger also announced late on Tuesday 5 July that it was suspending all ticket sales. This move came after several warnings from consumer regulators that if it continued selling tickets for flights from Saturday, it needed to tell customers it was uncertain whether it would be flying and that it was dependent on CASA approval.
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