Singapore Airlines increases flight frequency

Singapore Airlines has launched its sixth weekly fight from Bangalore up from five weekly flights. With the addition of the sixth flight the airline will now offer 1816 seats per week from Bangalore.

Singapore Airlines is also looking at Tier II cities like Coimbatore, Vizag, Nagpur and Tirchy. Addressing mediapersons in Bangalore on Tuesday Foo Chai Woo, GM of Singapore Airlines (India) said, "We are looking at many developing cities in India with our subsidiary regional airline, Silk Air. Tier II cities are on our radar screen and at the right time we will evaluate those markets."

SilkAir currently operates daily flights to Kochi and four flights to Thiruvananthapuram. Excluding SilkAir operations, Singapore Airlines operates 48 weekly flights to eight destinations in India.

Mr Woo said, "We are waiting for the traffic rights to operate daily flight to Bangalore. And with demand picking up we are also looking at operating daily fight to Hyderabad as well." As of now Singapore Airlines operates four flights to Hyderabad.

"The airline also wants to increase its frequencies to Delhi and Chennai," added Mr Woo. Currently it operates daily fights to Delhi, Chennai and double daily flights to Mumbai. Average load factor of the airline across eight destinations in India is around 70-80 per cent. 30 per cent of the airline's passengers out of India are Singapore bound and 70 per cent are onward passengers, said Mr Woo.

Singapore Airlines is also offering a return fare of Rs 6,666 (excluding tax & surcharges) from Bangalore to Singapore, Rs 7,777 on Bagalore-Kualalumpur and Bangalore-Penang route and Rs 8,888 for travel from Bangalore to Bangkok. The offer is valid for outbound travel on Tuesday only from November 28, 2006 to January 31, 2007. Inbound travel can be on any day as per availability.

Singapore Airlines will become the first airline in the world to operate commercial flights on the Airbus A380-800, super jumbo aircraft when it comes into service. The airline has ordered 10 A380-800 and another 15 on option worth $8.6 billion. First A380-800 is expected to be delivered in October 2007.


Source: India Times