Safety fears ground Tiger, refunds offered

2 Jul 2011, 4:47 pm   -   Source: AAP
All Tiger Airways Australia domestic flights have been suspended. (AAP)

All Tiger Airways Australia domestic flights have been suspended. (AAP)

Tiger Airways has been grounded by the aviation regulator over "serious and imminent" safety concerns, throwing the travel plans of 35,000 people into chaos.

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Budget airline Tiger Airways Australia has been grounded by the aviation regulator over "serious and imminent" safety concerns, throwing the travel plans of 35,000 people into chaos.

In an Australian first, all of Tiger's domestic flights have been suspended for a week, until July 9.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) said it took the action because it believed permitting the airline to continue to fly posed a serious and imminent risk to air safety.

CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said the action, which was not taken lightly, had followed a number of events this year.

"The Civil Aviation Safety Authority has lost confidence in Tiger's ability to manage safety appropriately," Mr Gibson said.

"The last thing CASA wants to do is put airlines on the ground and inconvenience the travelling public but safety has to come first."

CASA has been closely monitoring Tiger's safety performance this year, but the final straw came late on Thursday night when a flight again approached too low into a Melbourne airport.

The regulator may yet decide to apply to the Federal Court to extend the grounding.

Tiger said it had already taken steps to address CASA's concerns and was committed to getting back in the air as soon as possible.

"Safety has and will underpin our operations at all times," it said.

The aircraft engineers union, which has called off planned industrial action at Qantas because of the grounding, believes Tiger's safety problems won't be easily fixed.

"I would doubt very much if Tiger would be back in the air in the next few weeks," Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association federal secretary Steve Purvinas said.

It's the first time CASA has grounded an entire airline.

The last time CASA took such extensive action was when it grounded Ansett's 767 fleet of 10 aircraft in April 2001, and seven of the jets in December 2000.

Ansett, then Australia's second largest airline, went into voluntary administration in September 2001.

CASA issued Tiger with a show cause notice in March over concerns about aircraft maintenance, pilot proficiency and its overall safety management system.

It later put a number of conditions on Tiger's air operator's certificate.

Tiger pilots have since flown below the lowest safe altitude on approach into Melbourne Airport on June 7 and into Avalon airport on Thursday.

"It's not so much the mistakes in themselves, the individual mistakes of the pilots, it's the pattern you're seeing of safety issues arising over and over again within the airline," Mr Gibson said.

Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said the grounding was regrettable but showed CASA was prepared to take tough decisions to protect safety.

"If anyone thinks the air safety regulator isn't prepared to take tough decisions and do its job, I think that today is evidence that CASA is indeed doing its job," he said.

The suspension took effect from 11pm (AEST) on Friday and while Tiger sent out text messages, many of the 7000 passengers due to travel with the airline on Saturday only found out their flights were cancelled when they arrived at airports.

The chaos was compounded by the start of school holidays in NSW and Victoria.

"(I'm) unimpressed. I mean, the airline may as well just close down. It's just pathetic," one woman said at Sydney airport.

About 35,000 people were due to fly with Tiger over the next week.

Rivals Jetstar and Virgin Australia are putting on extra flights with Qantas also considering boosting its capacity, while all three are offering special fares for Tiger passengers.

Tiger will offer passengers a full refund or a credit for deferred travel.

Australian and International Pilots Association president Barry Jackson said the grounding should be a wake-up call to get moving on recommendations from the recent Senate inquiry into pilot training and airline safety.

"There has been concern for some time about dropping safety standards in Australian aviation due to the pressures introduced by some low cost carriers," he said.

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