Australia lifts six-week ban on Tiger Airways

Australian aviation authorities on Wednesday lifted a six-week flying ban on the local unit of Tiger Airways after the budget carrier agreed to new conditions including extra training for pilots. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) said the airline, a subsidiary of the Singapore-based carrier, could take to the air again whenever it wanted. "Tiger can resume operations at a date and time of their choosing," CASA's director of aviation safety John McCormick said. The regulator said Tiger had demonstrated it could comply with the new conditions on its air operator's certificate and meet the necessary safety requirements. The conditions relate to pilot training and proficiency, pilot rostering and fatigue management, the revision of operational manuals and amendments to the airline's safety management system. They include additional simulator and ground training for pilots. "We had concerns with the training Tiger was giving their pilots," McCormick told reporters. CASA grounded the airline from July 2 after flights twice approached airports in Melbourne too low, and following warnings about pilot proficiency, training and checking, and fatigue management. A preliminary investigation by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau into the first low-flying incident said the error was due to an incorrect lowest descent altitude in the commercial navigational database. It also said the flight crew did not initially notice that the altitude displayed in front of them was 500 feet below what they had been cleared to fly. In the second incident, a Tiger plane descended some 400 feet below the minimum safe altitude, although a preliminary report into that incident has not been finalised. In both cases the aircraft landed safely and no-one was injured. The carrier has repeatedly vowed to fly again and on its website says its domestic Australia flights are suspended until August 11. The ban raised fears about Tiger's future but Singapore Airlines, which has a 32.9 percent equity stake in Tiger Airways Holdings, has stated it has no plans to reduce its holdings.