Tiger Airways has now been cornered, not just by CASA but its major investor Singapore Airlines.

Given the comments made this morning by the air safety regulator’s spokesman, Peter Gibson, about the unfolding complexity of the issues it had discovered with Tiger,  the 10-jet Australian domestic franchise may as well surrender its AOC and, if it has the money and patience, start again from scratch.

It hasn’t either, and faces either a slow death or a mercy killing.

The former president and CEO of Tiger Airways Holdings, Tony Davis, has been replaced in the role for the time being by Singapore Airlines appointee Chin Yau Seng.  Davis’s job is now to be CEO of Tiger Airways Australia, replacing its managing director Crawford Rix.

And Davis, who once officially owned four million Tiger shares, or about 0.5% of the issued stock, and remains as a director of the holding company, has been directed by the company to devote his entire attention to fixing Tiger Australia. (The full current equity Davis owns is not known at this stage).

The board’s direction means that Davis has been told to fix up his disastrous legacy of non-compliance with Australian safety laws, not to mention his disregard as the responsible officer for its breaches of consumer law, covering everything from selling fares while not holding a valid air operator certificate to having an Anzac Day sale, complete with the illegal use of its symbols.

This morning Peter Gibson said the safety issues are more complex than first thought.

“The scope of the investigations remains pretty much the same but as we’re working through it, we’re finding that the issues are very complex, more complex than we first thought,” he said.

What is extraordinary about this is that it was so simple for Tiger to have avoided this situation. All it had to do was obey the laws it had agreed to uphold in the process of obtaining an AOC or licence to fly.

Now Davis has to pay attention to the CASA he consistently failed to heed in the past, undo his legacy of non-compliant and unsafe practices, and somehow or other, restore Tiger to being a brand that will attract sufficient customers at high enough fares to cover its costs and satisfy its shareholders

None of which it was doing in the past, as it lost money and infuriated many first-time customers with its unreliability, its mean and tricky ticketing conditions and its inability to refund fares in one simple transfer of funds within  a reasonable period of time.

For Singapore Airlines the dilemma is pressing. It is launching its own 100%-owned wide-body international carrier to take on the likes of Jetstar International and AirAsiaX. Starting next year. It needs as much space between the Tiger disaster and its own wholly owned low-cost venture as possible.

Yet there is no guarantee that Tiger Australia will regain its AOC by the start of August, and CASA can veto Tony Davis, who spent months defying them, as being fit to continue as CEO upon any restoration of that licence.