Tiger Airways has announced a major leadership change, with acting CEO Chin Yau Seng to become permanent CEO, and Australia unit head Tony Davis to leave the company.

Davis's departure is effective on 1 November 2011, when Chin will assume his new role, said Tiger. Davis will also cease to be an executive director of Tiger Airways.

"I would like to thank Tony for his efforts and contributions over the past seven years," said Tiger Chairman JY Pillay.

Davis assumed the role of Tiger Airways CEO in 2005, becoming one of the pioneers in Southeast Asia's nascent low cost carrier sector. In July Davis took over as CEO of Tiger Airways Australia to help the then-grounded unit return to normal operations following its grounding on safety concerns.

"Tony's most recent job was to get Tiger Airways Australia back in the air," said Pillay. "He has worked tirelessly, together with our Australia Management team to re-launch the airline, resulting in the resumption of Tiger Airways Australia's services on 12 August."

Tiger said Davis resigned owing to his plans to return to Europe. A company spokesman gave no details about Davis's next role, if any. Tiger is in the process of finding a new CEO for its Australian unit.

Chin is a former CEO of Singapore Airlines unit Silkair, where he spent 15 years of his career.

On 26 August, Tiger announced plans to raise approximately S$158.6 million ($131 million) through a rights issue, with Singapore Airlines and Temasek Holdings unit Dahlia Holdings to obtain 90% of the rights due to them as shareholders.

Tiger will use the proceeds to fund pre-delivery and final delivery payments for aircraft that it expects to be delivered by the end of 2015.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news