Tiger Airways says the grounding of its Australian operation is costing it $SIN 2 million a week, and in a statement of ‘actions taken by the board’ has sent its President and CEO Tony Davis to Australia to fix the mess.

The statement confirms Tigers commitment to resolving its issues with CASA and restarting its Australian domestic operations as soon as possible.

Tiger Airways Holdings also announced the appointment of Singapore Airlines divisional Vice President Cabin Crew Operations, Chin Yau Seng, as an executive director of Tiger Airways Holdings in Singapore from tomorrow, July 4.

Chin’s role is to “work with Mr. Davis in providing oversight of the rest of the Company’s interests”. Or in other words, to take care of Davis’s functions in Singapore while he is devoting his entire efforts to fulfilling the safety obligations that Tiger has neglected to meet in Australia, which caused it to be grounded by CASA late on Friday night as an intolerable threat to public safety.

Singapore Airlines holds a 32 per cent stake in Tiger Airways Holdings, a listed company which owns Tiger Airways in Singapore and Tiger Airways Australia.

It isn’t known whether CASA this week will apply to the Federal Court to extend its initial suspension of Tiger Australia’s AOC or licence until next Saturday, July 9 or whether Tiger will take legal action in response to any such application.

Before he flew to Australia yesterday Davis gave interviews in which he rejected CASA’s position that Tiger’s continued operations posed a dangerous threat to air safety in Australia requiring the immediate suspension of its operating licence.