Tiger Airways and Thai Airways International jointly announced on Monday that they are set to form an alliance that would start servicing routes in Thailand by the first quarter of 2011, en route to establishing some presence in promising markets in the Asia-Pacific regions.

Tiger chief executive Tony Davis said that the joint venture would be officially known as Thai Tiger Airways as

he assured that that planned expansion in Thailand would not degrade the airlines' operation and growth targets in Australia, which is currently steered by country chief executive Crawford Rix.

Mr Davis expressed confidence that Mr Rix and his team is doing a good job in Australia as he allowed that Tiger's local operation is fully aware of the company's thrust in the country which is to sustain a business anchored on profitability.

He added that Tiger based its decision on expansion in Thailand to the encouraging turnovers seen in its Singapore and Australian ventures, where both businesses "moved to profitability very quickly, Singapore after three years and Australia breaking even in 18 months, which bodes well for this new airline."

Also, the airline underscored that it is further buoyed by solid resurgence of air travel in Australia where it commenced flying in November 2007 through Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport and Adelaide which were expanded to about 15 local destination as of late.

Tiger said that is set to add Avalon Airport on its schedule by November this year as its parent company ramps up its preparation for the Thailand route expansion, which was described by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation as a highly strategically place that could be the springboard entry for emerging low cost markets in China, Japan Korea and India.

The aviation centre noted that "the joint venture undoubtedly elevates Tiger a large notch in regional competitiveness with AirAsia and Jetstar," the airways' closest competitor in budget fare service routes.