Tiger Airways rebrands as Tigerair
Tigerair CEO Sharp: Looking to build a strong brand | Pic: Supplied/ James Morgan
Old logo
Low cost operator Tiger Airways has this morning unveiled a major rebranding of the airline as Tigerair.
The name change is part of a global rebranding by the airline’s Singaporean parent company Tiger Holdings and comes just days before it finalises a joint venture with Virgin.
The move also follows the 2011 grounding of the airline which saw the brand receive significant amounts of negative media attention after the Civil Aviation Safety Authority declared it had “lost confidence” in the cost-cutting airline.
At a press conference in Victoria this morning Tigerair CEO Rob Sharp conceded the airline would have a fight to restore consumer confidence.
“When you change a brand it’s something where you don’t just click a switch and all of a sudden you’re a new airline,” said Sharp.
“But we accept there is a market that we need to bring along for the journey and a big part of today is making that statement.
“We’re very aware that this is a journey, this is just the beginning, and we are looking at building a strong brand. The safety issues are a thing of the past and we have a number of processes that have been put in place.”
The airline CEO said the rebranding was part of the revival of the airline.
“Today’s news is much more than just a fresh coat of paint and a new logo – it is the start of the revival of our airline in Australia,” said Sharp.
“The brand with the leaping tiger was from a past era and we believe this is an opportune time, particularly in Australia, to state who is Tiger and what we stand for,” he said.
“The strategic repositioning of the brand will assist us through a significant period of growth over the coming years.”
The creative for the global rebrand was done by The Little Secret Agency in Singapore, however, the airline’s Australian agency McCann will be responsible for its domestic implementation.
Adrian Mills, group account director McCann, told Mumbrella that job would be to put an “Australian filter” on the creative work.
New Tigerair branding | Pic: Supplied/ James Morgan
“McCann’s role is to put an Australian filter on the work that has been done internationally and bring it to market locally,” said Mills.
The McCann executive also conceded there would be a challenge to change consumer perceptions around the airline.
“There is no quick fix to it but there is way for us to help Australians understand what low cost flying is and what budget airlines actually deliver and the benefits of that,” said Mills.
Nic Christensen
Nic Christensen flew to Melbourne and received overnight accommodation courtesy of Tigerair.
Linkedin
“Civil Asian safety authority”?
User ID not verified.
Hi Er,
My error – thanks for pointing out.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
nice logo
User ID not verified.
It is not a joint venture with Virgin. Virgin Australia Group are acquiring control of Tiger Australia (~62%)
User ID not verified.
Flying with Tiger today. Would prefer the ability to check in online over a new logo, but I’m sure they weighed that up.
User ID not verified.
I note Steve Creedy as also said “Joint Venture” in The Australian. Perhaps this is from Virgin/Tiger’s own media release. But at more than 50% ownership it isn’t a JV, it is control.
User ID not verified.
This seems a more appropriate order of importance:
1. Make sure service is at highest level
2. Stop getting fined by ACCC for spamming
3. Rebrand so people think we have changed things
User ID not verified.
..nice if he could also rebrand his staff to smile and be friendly once in a while… ohh and even an extra half inch of leg room on your planes would be a giant leap forward.
User ID not verified.
They could call themselves GetLaid Airways, I’d still never fly with them again. Syd to Melb dreadful.
User ID not verified.
only flown tiger once with no problems. The only hassle was the separate and budget terminals you fly in and out of (ie melbourne terminal) shocking!
User ID not verified.
Shouldn’t your by-line for your e-newsletter have been “Tiger tries to change its stripes”? Leopards have spots!!!
User ID not verified.
Flew Tiger once between Sydney-Melbourne.
Despite the horror stories, I didn’t have any problems.
Except for the tin shed terminal.
User ID not verified.
Love the new name. Sounds much better and easier to remember.
Tiger is not too bad. The bad thing is probably having to arrive to the airport way early because the check-in line is always long and you can’t check-in online.
If Tiger fixes this problem, so people can check-in online and don’t have to line up for an hour to get the boarding pass, that’d be great!
User ID not verified.
a friend of mine once missed a Tiger flight from the Gold Coast because is left early!
Being forced to then stay the night and catch a Virgin flight the next day, he was out of pocket with no compensation from Tiger.
User ID not verified.