SUNSHINE Coast Airport officials are confident budget airline Tiger Airways will resume flights here in the second half of the year.

The beleaguered carrier is gradually clawing back its flight schedule after the Civil Aviation Safety Authority grounded it in July last year.

The Sunshine Coast remains absent from the drop-down destination menu on the airline's website but Tiger bosses and airport management believe it is not "an if, but a matter of when".

Airport manager Peter Pallot said Tiger's grounding had resulted in a "20% loss of capacity" on the Sunshine Coast.

"We're in close contact with Tiger on an ongoing basis and they are very much in the consolidation phase of their recovery," he said.

"We're confident they will come back but we're not sure of the timing. We're confident it will be the second half of this year.

"The loss of Tiger has been a considerable blow.

"For the tourism industry, it's resulted in a significant rise in airfares because of the lack of competition. That is affecting demand into the Sunshine Coast."

Tiger Airways spokeswoman Vanessa Regan said the carrier was resuming domestic services gradually, focusing on flying popular routes to enable the airline to fly affordably and reliably.

"Since resuming services in August, 2011, Tiger Airways has been pleased with both the popularity of flights and with industry-leading punctuality performance of the airline," she said.

"The airline currently flies four popular routes between Melbourne and Sydney, Perth, Gold Coast and Brisbane. Tiger Airways is keen to reinstate a number of popular routes in the future which will be announced in due course. I can confirm that Tiger was pleased with demand with flights historically to and from Sunshine Coast.

"We have been in discussions with many tourism and airport partners around the country about our future development plans.

"We are keen to return to Sunshine Coast. It's not really a case of if, but when."

Mr Pallot said the airport expected to record about 900,000 visitors last year, with figures expected nextweek.

He said Tiger had been responsible for about 250,000 seats a year in and out of the Marcoola airport.