Asia Pacific low fare airline Tiger Airways has chosen Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport as its Australian headquarters.

The airline was launched in Singapore in September 2005 with two aircraft and three routes and now operates nine Airbus A320s and flies to 18 destinations.

The airline is expected to begin operations from Terminal Four at Tullamarine Airport in the later half of this year and expects to fly more than two million passengers in the first year.

Tiger Airways CEO Tony Davis said: “We are delighted to be linking our home base at Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport with our international gateway of Perth.

“Tiger Airways, and our consistently low fares, are already well known to West Australians through our daily services between Perth and Singapore and we are sure that we will have a strong response to our new service to Melbourne.”

“Our customers have told us they want lower fares to popular destinations such as Western Australia, and now Tiger Airways can offer competitive low fares on a sustained basis on our expanding domestic network across the whole of Australia.”

“This new route also enables travellers from Melbourne to link into Tiger Airways expanding international network through daily services between Perth and Singapore and beyond to other points in Asia.

Internal flights from Melbourne will begin later this year, and the news has been welcomed by Australian tourism officials.

“This announcement is a real coup for regional Queensland and shows how vital Queensland destinations are to the airline in its start-up phase,” Queensland Premiere Peter Beattie said.

“The Gold Coast will receive three direct flights daily from Melbourne and with one-way fares starting at AUS$49.95, the low cost flights will certainly encourage more Melburnians to travel to the Gold Coast to take advantage of its beaches over the Summer period.

“Mackay and Rockhampton will also receive four non-stop weekly return services from Melbourne to support the booming economies in those centres.”

Perth tourism minister Sheila McHale added: “This is an exciting opportunity for Western Australian tourism as this route boosts the number of leisure travellers coming into our State from Victoria.”

“Low-cost carriers have been successful in increasing tourism by offering competitive prices and attracting more visitors, so we see the Perth-Melbourne route as having real tourism potential.”