After weeks of deliberation and meetings across Australia, it has been announced that Tullamarine Airport in Melbourne has been officially selected as the Australian headquarters for Tiger Airways Australia. CEO of Tiger Airways, Tony Davis, said that coming to a decision was difficult and that many of the competing airports put forward impressive presentations.

"We went through a thorough and detailed selection process and chose Melbourne, as it presented the best opportunity for the successful launch of Australia's first truly "Low Fare" Airline," said Davis.

Davis also revealed that it was Melbourne's comprehensive skills base, long aviation heritage, and flexibility offered by Melbourne Airport, Victoria State and the City of Melbourne that lead the carrier to select the state.

The new airline operation will provide over 1000 job opportunities and will offer Australians a new breed of competitive low air fares. Tiger Airways has now commenced tendering maintenance, ground handling, training and catering contracts.

"The Air Operator's Certificate (AOC) process is on track and we are now talking to a variety of cities about destination opportunities so that we can start planning our route network .We've also started talking to a number of cities about the opportunities for locating a second base in Australia," said Davis.

"Tiger believes that Australians will embrace and enjoy its concept of genuine low fare travel. And I thank all the States, airports and communities for their enthusiasm to have Tiger Airways fly to their city."

The first year of operations will see Tiger basing 5 brand new Airbus A320s with a single class configuration of 180 seats. Davis said that the airline expects to carry around 2 million passengers in its first year.