The Tiger finally found its way to Melbourne

Starting November 23, 2007, Tiger Airways will be joining Jetstar and Virgin Blue as one of Australia’s budget airlines. They have been flying into Australia from Singapore, but only up to Darwin. This year, they will be starting their Australian domestic services, with Melbourne as their hub. In Melbourne, Tiger Airways will be using Tullamarine’s Terminal 4.

The first flight out of Melbourne on November 23 is flight TT 7402 Melbourne – Gold Coast at 7:00 am. Other scheduled flights for the day are two other flights to Queensland from Melbourne: Rockhampton & Mackay.

Other Australian domestic destinations include Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Launceston in Tasmania, and Perth in Western Australia. Gee, I wonder why they aren’t flying into Sydney.

How much would flying via Tiger Airways to Australia cost?

I tried a test booking departing Singapore on November 30, and flying back from Melbourne on December 18. Both flights are via Darwin. On the flight out of Singapore, the fare I got was SG$239.99 plus SG$140.30 tax. The flight back to Singapore is SG$199.99, and taxes are SG$185.81. My total fare is SG$766.09. That’s about Php23,046.38 (based on xe.com’s exchange for July 28, 2007). Not bad, eh?

So say you’re flying to Singapore via Tiger Airways or Cebu Pacific, that’s another Php8,000+, bringing your grand total to Php31,046.38. That’s four different flight segments, totaling to approximately 12 hours one way.

On the other hand, you can take PAL, pay the same amount for an 8-hour flight.

Australian domestic flights are terribly cheap though. Return tickets for Melbourne-Gold Cost can be as cheap as AU$99 (Php3,800) inclusive of taxes. That’s a far cry from the AU$342.00 I paid for the same flight I took last March.

Melbourne-Perth-Melbourne is also terribly cheap: AU$269.90 (Php10,200). The same flight costs AU$378 via Jetstar and AU$458 via Virgin Blue. The biggest difference though is that Tiger Airways’ Melbourne-Perth route is a red-eye flight. But still, not bad, eh?