Singapore’s Tiger Airways has applied to India and Sri Lanka to fly to six destinations as part of a bid to ramp up its South Asian network, its chief executive said in remarks published Thursday. The Singapore-based budget carrier hopes to get the nod to fly next year to Sri Lanka’s capital of Colombo and Indian cities Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Kozhikode and Goa, said Tony Davis.

“We have filed the necessary applications with the authorities in India and Sri Lanka and hope to progressively add the new new points to our network from next year,” Davis told the Straits Times newspaper.

Singapore’s aviation authorities have already given Tiger Airways permission to fly to the six South Asian destinations, Davis said, adding that expanding the carrier’s routes to South Asia, in particular India, has been on the cards.

“We have had rights to Kolkata for some time but we wanted to go into India in a meaningful way with multiple destinations instead of launching an isloated point,” he said.

Tiger Airways currently flies from Singapore to 14 destinations in Australia, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Macau, Indonesia and the Philippines.

The carrier launched its first flight in 2004. It is owned by four shareholders, including Singapore Airlines which has a 49 percent stake and state-linked Singapore investment firm Temasek Holdings with 11 percent.
——-