TIGER Airways, desperately seeking to claw back market share, has announced it will add an extra daily flight on its Melbourne to Gold Coast route.

The extra flight, revealed as part of the budget carrier's 2012 winter schedule, is predicted to bring an additional 46,000 tourists to the Gold Coast between March and the end of October.

Tiger will offer $59.95 airfares on the heavily subscribed route - a price which the airline is confident will ensure Victorians head north in their droves to escape to the Queensland winter warmth.

Jim Wilson, chief executive officer of Connecting Southern Gold Coast, says he is "delighted" by the announcement.

"The Gold Coast tourism industry faces challenging times over the next couple of years and the loss of Tiger due to their compliance problems hurt the region," Mr Wilson said.

"But this is fantastic news and the fact that it is on the Melbourne-Gold Coast route augers well for the local tourism industry.

"The Gold Coast has a long history as an attractive destination for Victorians as they escape the southern winter cold.

"And now that the Gold Coast Suns are up here, I reckon the Suns' home games during the winter will be boosted by swarms of Victorian Aussie Rules fans taking advantage of the cheap flights to come here and support their teams and also take advantage of what our wonderful region has to offer."

Tiger is keen to add 380,000 seats Australia-wide during the winter schedule as it strives to entice travellers back to the airline after losing all custom during its enforced grounding while being investigated by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority last July.

After being given the all-clear to resume services in August, Tiger is gradually increasing flights in its more populous routes across the country as it bids to prove it is taking operational safety and punctuality seriously.

Tiger Airways spokeswoman, Vanessa Regan said the airline was determined to improve its on-time performance, limit cancellations and improve safety standards.

"Certainly there is a lot of work to be done to reassure Australians and win back confidence but we are beginning to see pleasing results," Ms Regan said.

Tiger is currently operating seven of its 10 Australian-based planes and is keen to bring the other three aircraft back online in 2012.

A Goldman Sachs Investment Research Report in May, 2011, found Gold Coast Airport, which relied heavily on leisure travellers, would suffer the most if Tiger withdrew its services from Australia.

The report also found that real airfares dropped 13% since Tiger entered the market in 2007.

So it is little wonder local tourism bodies, Connecting Southern Gold Coast and Destination Tweed, were over the moon with Tiger's announcement.