Tigerair Australia credits BAE Systems Australia for improved punctuality

Tigerair Australia has credited BAE Systems Australia for helping the low-cost carrier improve on-time performance and reduce cancellations over the past two years.

In October 2013, BAE Systems signed its first non-military engineering support contract in Australia to provide base maintenance services for Tigerair’s fleet of Airbus A320s.

To support the Tigerair business, BAE Systems attained Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) 145 accreditation to deliver line maintenance up to and including A-checks for the A319/A320/A321 family.

The company’s commercial maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) capability built on its longstanding aircraft sustainment support to the Australian Defence Force.

In the following two years, BAE Systems says it has completed more than 400 base maintenance checks on the airline’s A320 fleet at Tigerair’s engineering facility at Melbourne Tullamarine.

“Since we transitioned to BAE Systems for our base maintenance in 2013, we’ve seen efficiencies and improvements in our on-time performance,” Tigerair head of engineering Robin Furber said in a statement on Wednesday.

“And, year to date, we’ve had the lowest cancellation rate in the industry of all the major domestic airlines, which has helped underpin a major step change in customer satisfaction.”

Figures from the Bureau of Transport, Infrastructure and Regional Economics (BITRE) showed that in September 2015 Tigerair had 86.9 per cent of scheduled flights depart on time, while 86.4 per cent arrived at their destination on time. The airline had a cancellation rate of 0.8 per cent in the month. All measures were ahead of low-cost rival Jetstar.

BITRE defines a flight as on time if it arrives or departs within 15 minutes of its published schedule.

By comparison, Tigerair’s punctuality in October 2013 had the airline achieving 67.4 per cent on-time departures and 62 per cent on-time arrivals, while its cancellation rate was 5.1 per cent.

BAE Systems Australia general manager for aircraft maintenance and support Adrian Lutze said the 400 base maintenance checks milestone was a “testament to our team”.

“We continue to exceed all key performance indicators for Tigerair and have developed a track record for improving commercial aircraft availability and on time performance – all while achieving the best value for money,” Lutze said in a statement.

“Our long-standing military aircraft sustainment experience has been pivotal to our success in this adjacent market. We look forward to continuing our strong partnership with Tigerair and growing our long-term commercial MRO business further.”

Tigerair, which is 100 per cent owned by Virgin Australia, took delivery of its 14th Airbus A320 in late August.