Tiger Air

Tiger Air: Aug operating performance. Load factors up as expected to 86% vs 81% yoy. No. of passengers carried +18% yoy, but -15% mom, to 442k. Growth numbers generally disappointing compared to recent months and to same period last yr, although mgt explains that Aug is traditionally a quieter travel month, and Aug last year benefited from the first full mth of contribution from new major Australian flight routes…

Seat capacity dropped 13% mom, likely due to combination of flight cancellations, as well as scheduled aircraft maintenance checks, which effectively meant an aircraft was removed from the normal flying programme. Data unlikely to inspire, and suggests 2QFYMar11 could disappoint, if pgr numbers don’t pick up in Sep…

While near term stock performance could be muted, catalyst would come from Tiger’s increase in fleet size over 2HFYMar11, as it takes delivery of 9 new aircraft and returns 2 older aircraft. This suggests Tiger’s FY11 results likely to be heavily back-end loaded.

Street is divided on Tiger’s prospects, offers wide target price range of btwn $1.52 - 2.40.