ACCC chairman says this proposal is a complex assessment.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) says Virgin Australia’s proposed tie-ups with Tiger, Skywest and Singapore Airlines are a “tricky” issue.

Last week, Virgin released plans to purchase up to 60 percent in Tiger Airways and fully acquire Skywest Airlines, all of which would be paid for by selling a ten percent stake to Singapore Airlines for up to $105 million. 

Placed with the responsibility of either granting or declining the carrier’s plans, ACCC chairman Rod Sims described this particular case as a complex assessment, because of the matched pros and cons.

"This is a tricky one, there's no question about that," he told ABC Television’s Inside Business late last week.

He explained that while the acquisitions would help make them a “better competitor” against Qantas, the deals would essentially take out “really the only other” competitor in the market.

“We like more players rather than less, but here we have to balance up that you’ve got a really strong player in Qantas in the premium end and you’ve got Jetstar in a really strong position in the short term,” Mr Sims said.

“You can well argue this will bring more for competition.

“[But] we’ll have to weigh all that up.”