Direct flight service between Singapore and Coimbatore

The direct flight service between Singapore and Coimbatore would help in promoting industrial, business as well as leisure travel prospects on either side, observed David Lim, Vice-President (Commercial) of Silk Air, on Sunday.

Silk Air would provide connectivity from Singapore for tourists from Australia, the U.S., the U.K. and other parts of the world to visit destinations in and around Coimbatore. He was talking to reporters after inaugurating the first direct flight service of Silk Air between Coimbatore and Singapore.


The inaugural flight from Singapore had over 95 per cent occupancy while the outgoing first flight to Singapore had over 65 per cent occupancy. It would have been higher, if the inaugural flight time was not advanced, he said.

The dignitaries launched the first service by cutting a cake. Captains Shri Ram and Mandesh Singh along the flight crew were honoured.

Mr. David said with the major metro cities having reached a saturation level Silk Air was looking at the business prospects in fast growing cities such as Coimbatore. Silk Air was focussing on business tourists as well as leisure travellers.

To foster business and industrial ties, Silk Air in its first flight from Singapore on Sunday brought in a delegation of Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The delegation would meet industrial and business houses and explore areas where there could be ties for encouraging investments. The delegation was hoping for fruitful efforts on education and textile machinery segments. Mr. Lim said Silk Air was waiting for a long to launch its service to Coimbatore. He said a study team was constituted in 2004 which suggested operation of services to Coimbatore. But the plans could not be materialised since they had to wait for a review of the air service agreement between the two countries.

“When the review of the agreement this year gave the opportunity Silk Air came into Coimbatore,” he said.

On increasing frequency between Singapore and Coimbatore, David said a city such as Coimbatore with so much of potential required more services and added that depending on patronage the number of services would be increased.

On the cargo freighter, Mr. Lim said as such the passenger flights could take up to three tonnes of cargo and if there was more demand, Silk Air would impress upon Singapore Airlines to commence cargo services.

As of now, Coimbatore is the third city in the South India next to Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi for Silk Air. Mr. Prabhu said India’s tourism office at Singapore would showcase the opportunities and potentials in terms of business, tourism and culture in this part of the country. Minister for Rural Industries Pongalur N. Palanisamy, Nilgiris MP R. Prabhu, Coimbatore Mayor R. Venkatachalam, Customs Commissioner C. Rajendran, Airport Director K. Hemalatha, Manager Public Affairs of Silk Air Renu Nair, Manager India of Silk Air Ramachandra Menon and Manager of Silk Air L. Ravindran, Coimbatore, were among those who took part in the inaugural function.

Coimbatore-Singapore Silk Air direct flight from October 28

Silk Air, the regional wing of Singapore Airlines, will launch its Coimbatore-Singapore-Coimbatore weekly thrice direct flight service on October 28. This becomes the first ever connectivity between the two cities.

Ramachandra Menon, Manager India and L. Ravindran, Coimbatore Manager for Silk Air announced this to presspersons on Friday.

Coimbatore becomes the third destination for Silk Air in south India next to Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi.

Coimbatore airport has only one international connectivity for Sharjah by Indian and Air Arabia.

Silk Air officials said the new weekly thrice service would make for a capacity injection of 700 seats a week providing a boost to Coimbatore’s trade and tourism and to meet the growing demand for direct international connections to and from the city.

Passenger traffic soaring in Coimbatore Airport

Passenger and aircraft movements at the Coimbatore Airport have soared thanks to economic boom and entry of low cost airlines. Airport Director K. Hemalatha said SilkAir was planning to operate a weekly thrice service from Coimbatore to Singapore (to and fro flight) from October 28. The flight scheduled for Wednesday, Friday and Sunday will arrive at 11.30 p.m. and depart at 00.20 a.m. The airline is planning to operate A319 or A320 aircraft (120 or 180 seats respectively).

The Coimbatore–Singapore flight service becomes the second international connectivity for Coimbatore next to the Coimbatore– Sharjah weekly thrice service by Indian. Airport sources said Sri Lankan Airlines had evinced interest in operating a service from Coimbatore to Colombo and was even planning to have five services a week.

A team from the airline is coming to Coimbatore this week to finalise arrangements. Sources said there had been enquiries for the feasibility of a Coimbatore–Dubai connectivity and one of the Gulf-based airlines was likely to grab it. Spice Jet Airways is planning to operate services from Coimbatore with Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Chennai likely to be the destinations. A Chennai-based firm ‘Dravidian Air’ was planning to operate services connecting major airports in the four southern states.

Airlines from Singapore can operate to Coimbatore

India and Singapore have agreed to increase the number of seats being offered by their designated airlines in a phased manner till winter 2009.

The designated airlines of Singapore will now be allowed to operate regular flights to Coimbatore, there by increasing its footprint here. This was firmed up at the conclusion of bilateral air services agreement between India and Singapore here late on Tuesday night.

The agreement not only permits airlines from Singapore to increase the current number of flights that they operate to some cities here but also allows similar freedom to airlines from India.

In August 2005, when the last round of air services between India and Singapore were successfully exchanged airlines from Singapore were allowed to increase frequency to Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata.

At present, Singapore Airlines and its subsidiary Silk Air operate regular flights to Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai and Ahmedabad Kochi among others.

Air India, Air India Express, Indian, Air Sahara and Jet Airways operate regular flights from various points within the country to Singapore, while Singapore Airlines operates regular flights to India.



Source: Moneycontrol.com

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

Singapore can be a hub

Though Singapore may not be cost competitive for setting up manufacturing units, Coimbatore can make use of its advancements in textile and engineering design to enhance business potential, a senior minister of Singapore has said.


"Singapore can also be made a hub to reach out faster to South East Asian countries and the western part of America, due to its strategic location and excellent logistic facilities," Dr Balaji Sadasivan, senior Minister for Foreign Affairs, Information, Communication and Arts, Singapore, said.


He was interacting with the members of CII, Coimbatore Chapter, during his recent visit to the city, on the potential to boost bilateral economic cooperation between his country and Coimbatore, a CII press release said today.


With a quantum jump not only in business travellers, but also leisure travellers between the region and Singapore, Silk Air (of Singapore) was considering starting a direct air link between the two destinations and was awaiting the Centre's approval, he said.


The Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) signed between the two countries last year was entering the next stage with Singapore's intention to create special economic zones in India, Sadasivan said.


Bilateral trade has jumped 41 per cent in 2004-05 from 11 billion dollars to 16 billion dollars following the CECA, the release added.


Source: Chennai Online

SILK Air - Direct flights to Singapore

SILK Air is considering direct air connectivity between Coimbatore and Singapore, said Balaji Sadasivam, Singapore's Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Information, Communication and Arts.

He was addressing the members of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Coimbatore, at a meeting held here on Monday.

According to a CII release, Mr. Sadasivam said there was a quantum jump during the last two years in not only business travellers between Singapore and this region but also "leisure travellers." Hence SILK Air was considering direct air connectivity between Coimbatore and Singapore and this was awaiting Central Government's approval.

"Singapore and Coimbatore can complement each other in the field of healthcare, education and engineering design."

A hub


Though Singapore might not be cost competitive to set up a manufacturing unit, Coimbatore could make use of its advancements in textile and engineering design and make Singapore a hub to reach out faster to the South East Asian countries and the Western parts of the U.S., he said.

Further, Singapore was looking at creating special economic zones in India, he added.

Bilateral trade


The Chairman of the CII, Coimbatore Zone, Jayakumar Ramdass, said bilateral trade and investment links between Singapore and India had seen a dramatic growth in recent years.

Various multinational companies were routing their investments in India through their Singapore subsidiaries. Companies from Singapore had invested in various projects in India such as logistics, health services, electronics and software.

Top five sectors


The top five sectors that attracted Foreign Direct Investment from Singapore included telecommunications, services (financial and non-financial), electrical equipment (including computer software and electronics), fuel and transportation industries.

India's trade with Singapore grew three times in the last five years and this was contributed by surge in exports and imports from and to Singapore, the release said.

Source : the Hindu

SilkAir may start Coimbatore operations by '08

Buoyed by growing passenger traffic and aircraft movement at Coimbatore airport, SilkAir, a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, plans to introduce its services here.

"Considering the huge outflow of passengers from this region to nations like China and Singapore for textile-related business activities, SilkAir may soon operate from the Coimbatore airport," Sanjay Cherian, passenger sales officer, Singapore Airlines, said here.

Although he remained non-committal on the timeline for the start of operations, sources say it is likely to happen by 2008.

During January-April 2006, tourist arrivals from India to Malaysia stood at 75,740, registering an 18% increase over arrivals during the corresponding period, a year ago. Of the 2.25 lakh Indian tourists who visited Malaysia in 2005, 37% were from non-metro cities, with the highest number of travellers being from Coimbatore., Joseph K Jose, marketing manager, Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board, said.

Passenger traffic to Southeast countries Asian like China and Singapore is also gaining momentum, especially in the post quota regime, i.e. after January 2005, for importing textile machinery and placing orders for spindles, he added.

“SilkAir did a feasibility study a few months ago on operating its flights out of Coimbatore airport. We got positive results but the plans were put on the back-burner due to infrastructural hurdles such as inadequate parking bays at the airport. Now that the upgradation work is going on, we are ready to start our operations from Coimbatore,” Cherian said.

At present, SilkAir flies to Cochin International Airport (Nedumbassery) and Thiruvananthapuram International Airport. It may either take the 'via' route (Cochin or Trivandrum - Coimbatore - Singapore) or operate directly from Coimbatore.
Courtesy : Business Standard