BNE welcomes new Tigerair base

Tigerair, which will allocate two brand new Airbus A320 aircraft at the airport from March and April 2014, has also announced the launch of three new routes from Brisbane (to/from Darwin, Cairns and Adelaide), as well as a boost in capacity between Brisbane - Sydney and Brisbane - Melbourne.

Ms Alroe said today's announcement highlights Tigerair's strong commitment to Queensland which will almost double the carrier's seat capacity into BNE, generate over 120 new local jobs, provide more choice for travellers and help to stimulate tourism across the board.

"The decision by Tigerair to set up a base at BNE is important recognition for Brisbane as a key aviation hub, allowing the airline to stimulate the low cost travel market and help to grow existing and new key destinations and routes.

"It not only paves the way for future growth of the airline but provides significant flow on benefits - jobs, investment and opportunity - that powers local, state and national growth.

"We congratulate CEO Rob Sharp and his team on today's significant announcement and look forward to strengthening our partnership and encouraging and supporting the evolution of Tigerair," Ms Alroe said.

With Tigerair's new Brisbane base and the additional services announced today 59 per cent of the airline's capacity will touch Queensland. Brisbane will become Tigerair's third Australian base.

As part of the airline's enhanced customer service focus BAC and Tigerair have been working together to trial new self-service kiosk and bag-drop facilities which were officially launched today.

The kiosks enable passengers to scan their travel documents and be issued with a boarding pass and bag tags in a process that takes less than two minutes to complete.

Passengers with check-in baggage then take it to the 'bag drop' area where staff will check their ID and scan their bag tags to accept them for travel.

"The kiosks help to eliminate queuing and significantly improve the airport experience," Ms Alroe said.