Tigerair to run more flights between Macau and Taiwan

Chang Ho-Jo

The Chairman of Tigerair Taiwan, Chang Ho-Jo, said that the low-cost carrier will increase the frequency of flights between Macau and Taiwan, starting from August.

The information was announced on the sidelines of a ceremony where the company welcomed its three-millionth passenger at the Macau International Airport.

Specifically, the airline is considering adding three – and possibly up to seven – additional lines connecting both regions. Currently, there are 42 links between Macau and several destinations in Taiwan.

At the end of March, Tigerair Taiwan launched a new route between Macau and Taichung.

The airline’s chairman disclosed that this route has been running well, despite the unbalanced number of passengers. According to Chang, there are more passengers flying to Macau from Taichung and fewer passengers flying to Taichung departing from Macau.

The number of passengers is more balanced with respect to cities such as Taipei and Kaohsiung.

For the past few years, Tigerair Taiwan has been running a deficit. However, Chang expressed his optimism concerning the airline’s revenue in 2017, noting that Tigerair Taiwan can naturally continue its operations.

In July, the airline will unveil an independent website, that the company anticipates will allow it to seize more opportunities. In particular, they hope to convince more passengers to choose Tigerair Taiwan to provide one of their connecting flights on the way to their final destination. “Currently, we are still sharing a website with Tigerair Singapore, but after July 11 [the date on which  Tigerair Taiwan will cease sharing their website with Tigerair Singapore] we will bump sales regarding this aspect, […] by letting the transit passengers become the main source of customers,” explained Chang.

So far this year, the airline has registered a 20 percent increase on average when compared to the homologous period of last year. Most noticeably, the airline’s passenger load factor reached more than 80 percent, a jump from the previous load factor of over 70 percent.

In the upcoming December, the airline will include another aircraft in the operations based in Kaosiung city. “We will transfer some operations to Kaosiung, where we hope to expand the tourism market,” said Chang.

With the addition of this new aircraft, Tigerair Taiwan will have a total of 11 aircraft in its fleet.

In yesterday’s celebration, the three-millionth Tigerair Taiwan passenger, who happens to be a Macau resident, took the airline’s flight to Taipei.

To celebrate the milestone, Tigerair Taiwan awarded the passenger with a one-year pass offering free passage on an unlimited number of flights run by Tigerair Taiwan.