Singapore Airlines Launch New Budget Airlines for Low-Cost Carrier

Singapore Airlines (SIA) said Wednesday it will launch within one year a new budget airline using wide-body aircraft to tap into growing consumer demand for low-cost travel over longer distances.

SIA already runs a short-haul mid-price airline called SilkAir and owns 32.9 percent of budget carrier Tiger Airways but said it decided to establish the new subsidiary after “an extensive review and analysis” of the market.

It did not give a name for the future airline, saying more details will be announced “in due course” including its branding, services and routes.

“Operations are expected to begin within one year. The airline will be wholly owned by Singapore Airlines, but will be operated independently and managed separately from SIA,” the company said in a press statement.

SIA said the new carrier will “enable the airline to serve a largely untapped new market and cater to the growing demand among consumers for low-fare travel.”

The move will put the new carrier in competition with AirAsia X, the long-haul affiliate of Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia and British tycoon Richard Branson’s Virgin Group.

Unlike most other budget airlines using single-aisle planes for short hops, the new carrier will operate wide-body, double-aisle aircraft to ply medium- and long-haul routes.

“We are seeing a new market segment being created and this will provide another growth opportunity for the SIA Group,” SIA chief executive Goh Choon Phong said.

“As we have observed on short-haul routes within Asia, low-fare airlines help stimulate demand for travel, and we expect this will also prove true for longer flights.”

Shukor Yusof, an aviation analyst with Standard and Poor’s Equities Research, said SIA was making a foray into a largely untapped market, which is dominated in the region by AirAsia X.

AirAsiaX flies to 14 destinations –London, Taipei, Tehran, Paris, Seoul, Tokyo, China (Tianjin, Hangzhou, Chengdu), Australia (Gold Coast, Melbourne, Perth) and India (Mumbai, Delhi).

“If you look around, there’s only AirAsia X in this region that’s doing low-cost long-haul or medium- to long-haul flights. So essentially there’s an opportunity to make money,” Shukor told AFP.

“If you look at the recent financial year you can see that they (SIA) obviously need another avenue to grow their business.”

SIA said on May 12 that full-year net profit rebounded strongly from the global recession as travel demand recovered.

It earned Sg$1.09 billion ($873 million) in the financial year ended March 31, up fivefold from Sg$216 million a year ago while revenues rose 14 percent to Sg$14.5 billion.

SIA cautioned that the near-term outlook was expected to be difficult due to surging oil prices, concerns over the US economy, the impact from Japan’s quake-tsunami disasters and worries over Europe’s sovereign debt crisis.

Shukor expects the new SIA subsidiary to position itself higher than Tiger Airways.

SIA is “putting the expertise and the money behind this new entity and I have every reason to believe that it’s going to be an exceptional airline,” he added.

Shukor noted that AirAsia X was “doing quite well” flying to Europe, Northeast Asia and Australia and this may have triggered SIA to decide about launching a competitor.

SIA’s announcement also came after a report in the Australian Financial Review that Australian airline Qantas was planning to establish a new premium carrier based in Singapore.

Qantas would not confirm the report, dismissing it as speculation, but has said its international business had not been performing to expectations, with market share in this area falling in recent years.

SIA shares were closed unchanged at Sg$14.20 on Wednesday before the announcement.

Singapore Airlines to Provide Airline Tickets Payment Service Using Paypal

Online payment service provider PayPal and Asian carrier Singapore Airlines announced that customers in the US, Singapore and five other Asia Pacific countries and territories can now pay for their tickets via their PayPal account on singaporeair.com.

In this strategic partnership, Singapore Airlines customers may purchase tickets in as few as three clicks without having to retype their credit card or financial details. Apart from their PayPal account balance, users can pay for flights using credit or debit cards that are linked to their PayPal accounts. Users’ privacy and financial information will also be protected in the online transaction.

This collaboration between the two global companies could prove to be beneficial for both.

Singapore Airlines will be able to provide customers with a better checkout experience with PayPal’s hassle-free and secure payment service. Furthermore, the airline will be better positioned to reach out to more travellers on PayPal’s worldwide network of 94 million active users.

Ebay subsidiary PayPal gets a percentage from each online payment through its platform. By adding the much admired carrier to its list of merchants leveraging on its service, it strengthens its position in the growing personal payments marketspace in Asia Pacific.

Paypal’s first ever “Online and Mobile Shopping Insights” study in Singapore showed that shoppers here spent S$1.1 billion on online purchases in 2010 and are likely to spend four times that amount by 2015.

The company’s international headquarters is located in Singapore has been beefing up its operations here in Asia Pacific. It processed more than US$6 billion of total payment volume in the region in 2009, an increase of 38 percent from 2008.

Singapore Airlines Announce Adds Daily Flight to Hong Kong

Singapore Airlines announced the addition of a seventh daily flight between Singapore and Hong Kong, making the territory its busiest point outside of Singapore, with 56 outbound flights weekly (including flights departing Hong Kong for San Francisco).

The new service will commence on 27 March 2011. SQ890, operated by a Boeing 777-200ER aircraft, will depart Singapore at 0735hrs and arrive in Hong Kong at 1120hrs. The return flight, SQ891, will depart Hong Kong at 1230hrs and arrive in Singapore at 1610hrs.

Customers will have an even wider range of flight timings to choose from, with seven flights within a 12-hour period departing from both Singapore and Hong Kong. For the full schedule, please refer to the table on the next page.

“We are grateful for the continued support of our customers on this popular route and are delighted that we now have the opportunity to offer both business and leisure travellers an additional choice of flight timings,” said Executive Vice President Commercial Mr Mak Swee Wah.

With the new service, Singapore Airlines will be offering 2,151 seats per day between Singapore and Hong Kong, up from 1,847 previously.

Singapore Airlines to Increase Fuel Surcharge for Airline Ticket

Singapore Airlines (SIA) passengers will be paying more for their flight tickets due to an increase in fuel surcharge.

SIA announced on Friday that it will increase its fuel surcharge for tickets issued on or after Jan 27, as a result of the recent sharp and sustained escalation in the price of jet fuel.

The price hike – which will also be applied to SilkAir flights – will range between US$3 ($3.85) and US$27, depending on the flight distance and class travelled.

The application of fuel surcharges may be subject to regulatory approval or variation in some individual markets, said an SIA spokesman.

‘The adjustments will offer only partial relief from the higher operating costs arising from increases in the price of jet fuel,’ the spokesman said.

The price of jet fuel is more than US$110 per barrel.

Singapore Airlines Plans Global Expansion Strategy as Rising Competition in Asia Aviation Industry

Goh Choon Phong, who takes over as chief executive today, may get offers for the last major remains of Singapore Airlines’ global expansion strategy as he confronts rising competition in Asia. Virgin said in December it had received tie-up inquiries, and Singapore Airlines’ outgoing CEO, Chew Choon Seng, called the investment ”underperforming” two years ago and has said the airline would consider a sale.

In Asia, Mr Goh faces low-fare competition on long-haul routes from Jetstar and AirAsia X, as well as renewed efforts by Cathay Pacific and Korean Air Lines to lure away lucrative business-class travellers. And Middle Eastern carriers Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways have ordered close to 300 planes since 2007 as they build hubs linking Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
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Delta Air Lines and Middle Eastern airlines are among the carriers exploring a Virgin tie-up, Sky News reported in December, without saying where it got the information. Singapore Airlines’ stake complicates a deal as local ownership rules limit non-European investors to minority stakes.

”Either Singapore Air sells or Branson loses effective control by selling part of his stake,” said Andrew Miller, chief executive of CAPA Consulting, which advises airlines.

Singapore Airlines was ”very supportive of our business strategy, including the review by Deutsche Bank”, Greg Dawson, a Virgin spokesman, said.

Mr Chew, who spent almost four decades at Singapore Airlines, sold a leasing arm and spun off a ground-handling unit while CEO to focus on the carrier’s flying business. He will take over as chairman of Singapore Exchange Ltd today.

Mr Chew’s predecessor, Cheong Choong Kong, bought stakes in Virgin and Air New Zealand to expand overseas. The value of the Air NZ investment was written down in 2001, and the remaining holding sold three years later.

Competition is intensifying in the premium market, which accounts for 40 per cent of Singapore Airlines’ sales. Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific is working on a $HK1 billion ($A126 million) business-class upgrade to lure executive travellers.

Korean Air, which aims to get 50 per cent of passenger sales from premium classes by 2019, will receive its first five Airbus SAS A380s next year. And Emirates is building a fleet of 90 A380s.

source : Bloomberg

Singapore Air A380 Delivery Delayed After Koito Industries Failed to Deliver Seats on Time

Singapore Air’s A380, configured to carry 471 passengers, is fitted with 60 business-class seats on the second level of the double-decker aircraft, according to its website

Singapore Airlines Ltd., the first carrier to fly the Airbus SAS A380 commercially, said the introduction of its 12th superjumbo has been delayed after Koito Industries Ltd. failed to deliver seats on time.

Singapore Airlines Ltd., the world’s second-largest carrier by market value, said the introduction of its 12th Airbus SAS A380 has been delayed after Koito Industries Ltd. failed to deliver business-class seats on time.

The plane had been due for delivery this quarter and “has been delayed as a result of the issues that Koito has faced,” Nicholas Ionides, a spokesman for the carrier, said in an e-mail reply to Bloomberg queries. He said the delay isn’t affecting the airline’s current operations and he expects the plane to arrive before the end of March.

The postponement is the second time Singapore Air has pushed back introduction of an A380 because of late Koito seat deliveries. Rivals All Nippon Airways Co., Continental Airlines Inc. and Thai Airways International Pcl have also suffered delays after Koito in February admitted it falsified test results and made unauthorized design changes to its seats for at least a decade.

“We are working closely with Airbus, Koito and the relevant regulatory authorities and expect the issues to be resolved soon,” Ionides said in the e-mail.

Koito Industries spokesman Hidetsugu Matsudaira had no comment on the Singapore Air statement.

Koito rose 3.5 percent to 150 yen at the 3 p.m. close of Tokyo trading. Parent Koito Manufacturing Co., part-owned by Toyota Motor Corp., advanced 0.2 percent to 1,270 yen. Singapore Air fell 0.6 percent to S$15.70 at the 5 p.m. close in Singapore trading.

Seat Glitch

Singapore Air’s A380, configured to carry 471 passengers, is fitted with 60 business-class seats on the second level of the double-decker aircraft, according to its website. The carrier received its 11th superjumbo in July, six months late because of the seat glitch.

The airline plans to operate its 12th A380 between Singapore and Los Angeles, via Narita, Japan, when it’s delivered, Ionides said today. The aircraft will replace the Boeing Co. 747-400 currently used on the route.

Koito said in April it would stop taking orders for plane seats for as long as three years to focus on maintenance, including checking about 1,000 commercial planes in which its seats are installed. The Yokohama-based seat manufacturer paid 3.6 billion yen ($43 million) in compensation in the year ended in March and expects to pay another 3.3 billion yen this fiscal year.

Thai Airways, Thailand’s largest carrier, said in October it’s seeking as much as $180 million in compensation from the seatmaker.

Koito also makes business-class seats for Singapore Air’s Airbus A340-500s, as well as first-class seats for its Boeing Co. 777-300ERs, according to Ionides.

Singapore Airlines to Additional Flight to European Airport Service to Help Clear Backlog

Singapore Airlines to Operate Additional Flights to and from Europe

Singapore Airlines will be mounting additional flights over the coming days to help clear the backlog of customers affected by the recent closure of European airspace. The following is a list of additional flights and their respective departure details.

Flight details may be subject to change.
Route Flight number Departure time (local time) Date(s) of operation
Singapore – Manchester SQ8318 2330hrs 23 to 28 April
Singapore – Manchester SQ8328 0800hrs 24 to 28 April
Manchester – Singapore SQ8327 1615hrs 24 to 28 April
Manchester – Singapore SQ8321 1120hrs 24 to 29 April
Singapore – Frankfurt SQ8326 0230hrs 25 to 27 April
Frankfurt – Singapore SQ8325 1045hrs 25 to 27 April
Amsterdam – Singapore SQ8323 1330hrs 23 April
Singapore – Paris SQ8332 2205hrs 23 April
Paris – Singapore SQ8331 0730hrs 24 April
Singapore – Zurich SQ8342 0310hrs 28 April
Zurich – Singapore SQ8341 1400hrs 28 April

Airlines in the Asia-Pacific Delayed Flight to Europe and UK

Several airlines in the Asia-Pacific delayed flight to Europe because of volcanic ash clouds in the area of Iceland. Flight delays caused by several international airports in the UK and Northern Europe are closed. Qantas Airways, Singapore Airlines and around 10 airlines have canceled flights.

Qantas, which has more than 1,000 passengers holding at Asian stopovers, cancelled four services today and is unlikely to resume Europe flights before April 18, spokesman David Epstein told reporters. Singapore Air axed eight flights while Air China Ltd. and All Nippon Airways Co. also scrapped services.

The National Air Traffic Services Ltd. extended its U.K. airspace restrictions until 7 p.m. local time tonight on concern that airborne debris from the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjöll volcano could damage engines or parts such as speed sensors. Read more

Demand Aviation Services With Singapore Airlines Increase

For the second month in a row now Singapore Airlines has managed to report an increase in passenger load factor, and means that the pick-up of demand may well and truly be here to stay.

Singapore Airlines has been struggling with its load factors for some time now, over the past year it, and many other airlines, have been dealing with lacklustre demand in the market.
Read more

Airline Launches New Route To Australian

In order to increase tourist visits to Australia, several airlines launching new routes flights from England to Australia. Singapore Airlines is to launch the airline route service to Australia flight of stone.

Airline launches flight service to the Australian, among others: Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways. Read more

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