Virgin Australia Takes over Tigerair Flights from Bali

12th Jan 2017

Virgin Australia has rushed to accommodate stranded passengers in Bali after the Indonesian authorities unexpectedly canceled its subsidiary Tigerair Australia's services. VA will operate two flights from Bali to Australia on Thursday.

In total, Tigerair Australia was forced to cancel a total of nine services, four on Wednesday and five on Thursday and Friday. In a statement, Tigerair said the following Thursday services have been cancelled:

1. TT2 Melbourne-Denpasar

2. TT24 Denpasar-Perth

3. TT25 Perth-Denpasar

4. TT16 Denpasar-Adelaide

5. TT19 Perth-Denpasar

In addition, Friday's TT2 Denpasar-Melbourne has also been canceled.

Tigerair said in a statement:

"Tigerair Australia is still working with the Indonesian Government to resume flights to and from Bali as soon as possible. Virgin Australia plans to operate two flights from Bali tomorrow (Thursday) in order to bring as many affected customers back to Australia as possible. The passengers that will be accommodated on these flights will be contacted directly."

The statement continued:

"Customers currently in Australia who are affected by the cancellation of tomorrow's Tigerair services will be offered a full refund. Tigerair Australia sincerely apologizes for the inconvenience caused by these cancellations."

Tigerair said on Wednesday it had to suspend its all its services due to "new administrative requirements" from local authorities.

Indonesian authorities on the other hand, said the airline was in breach of its license conditions and its Directorate Generate of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said Tigerair didn't conform to the charter flight permit for Bali flights. According to the DGCA Head of Operations and Public Relations Soebagio Agoes, all foreign airlines operating there must obey the regulations in their flight permits.

The license, said DGCA, only allowed Tigerair to sell tickets for passengers from Australia, but not Indonesia.

Tigerair flies to Bali from Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide since March last year, after taking over these routes from Virgin Australia. The airline uses three Boeing 737-800 planes it also took from Virgin and repainted in its own livery. The flights are operated by Virgin Australia pilots and Tigerair cabin crew.

According to media, Tigerair had approval to operate the Bali-Australia routes between 30th October, 2016 and 25th May, 2017.