The Hindu Business Line : Singapore Airlines to increase flights

More flights
Singapore Airlines operates 48 weekly flights to eight destinations in India.
The airline has extended e-ticketing services across all its flights except Mumbai.

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Kolkata Feb. 8

Singapore Airlines hopes to augment the number of flights to and from Indian destinations. To begin with, the airline will introduce a second daily flight — on a staggered basis — between Chennai and Singapore during the second half of the current calendar year.

By 2009, the airline would "like to operate a double daily flight" to and from Delhi and Bangalore as well. A fifth-flight-a-week between Kolkata and Singapore is also likely to be added soon.

Singapore Airlines, which started operations to Chennai in 1970, operates 48 weekly flights to eight destinations in India, including double daily flights to Mumbai, daily flights to Delhi and Chennai, six-times-a-week to Bangalore, four-times-a-week to Kolkata and Hyderabad, and three-times-a-week to Ahmedabad and Amritsar. In addition, Singapore Airlines' subsidiary Silk Air operates daily flights to Ahmedabad and four-flights-a-week to Thiruvananthapuram.

Depending on demand

Addressing a news conference here on Wednesday, Mr Foo Chai Woo, General Manager (India), Singapore Airlines, said that a second daily flight between Chennai and Singapore would be introduced for three days of the week to begin with.

Depending upon passenger demand, this would go up to four-days-a-week and then to all days of the week. Given the growing investment interest in West Bengal, the airline was of the opinion that a fifth weekly flight might be introduced between Kolkata and Singapore.

Mr Foo said the Governments of Singapore and India were discussing the bilaterals, on which the number of additional flights on the Singapore-India sector would depend. He ruled out any plans to add new destinations to Singapore Airlines' network in India.

According to him, Singapore Airline has extended e-ticketing services across all its flights except Mumbai station, which would be e-ticket enabled by February 16.The service will enable the airline's customers to purchase e-tickets for travel on Singapore Airlines flights departing from any of its gateways in India.