Tigerair Australia services will be actively promoted to Flight Centre Travel Group’s customer base under a new three year strategic partnership between the two parties, in line with the retailer’s recent commitment to work more closely with low cost carriers.
The agreement, the first between FLT and Tigerair, will see the two parties join forces to coordinate sales and marketing efforts.
Flight Centre chief executive Graham Turner said the new deal will help the company ensure it is offering the widest range of airfares to its customers.
“Tigerair has developed a solid presence on domestic and commencing soon international routes and its offering has become an attractive proposition for our leisure and corporate travel customers,” he said.
“We look forward to working more closely with Tigerair to grow the market and help it achieve its aims as it enters its next phase of growth.”
Meanwhile, Tigerair Australia chief executive Rob Sharp admitted the deal represents a “deviation” from the original low cost model, but stressed it reflects all the changes underway at the airline.
“We are now working with a number of travel agents where it makes commercial sense, which is particularly important for our new Bali services commencing early next year,” he said.
“Not only does the partnership open up new sales and distribution channels, it also helps drive awareness of the new-look Tigerair product and experience.”
It now has a dedicated agency support team to assist travel agents with any queries or make changes to bookings with real time live chat sessions to help agents assist with sales queries also on the cards.
According to Sharp, the new arrangement comes at a “great” time, ahead of the start of Tigerair Australia’s first direct services from Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide to Bali in March.
