Tiger Airways Australia, a budget airline, has been shut down by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) in Australia because of air safety risks. None of the 10 Airbus A320 jets will be permitted to fly until Saturday at the earliest on domestic Australian routes. CASA can only impose such a ban for 5 days and after that permission is required from the Federal Court. At the moment it is not clear what the outcome will be but it is highly likely that the Federal Court will extend the ban.
Australian schools have broken up for the holidays and as many as 35000 domestic passengers are due to travel in the next week or so.
Tiger Airways International flights between Australian and Singapore are not affected by the ban as they are operated as an entirely seperate business.