The Hindu Business Line : Singapore Airlines keen on India promotion

As part of this effort, passengers will be "enticed to fly to India", according to Mr Stephen Forshaw, Vice-President, Public Affairs, Singapore Airlines. The airline plans to extend its boarding pass privileges (BPP) programme to India in a bid to make the country attractive to tourists, mainly from the US and Europe, he said.

First launched in 2004 in Singapore, the BPP programme entitles one to a discount at selected partner outlets, including food and beverage outlets, shopping malls, tourist spots and organised city tours. Show the boarding pass at the billing counter and save up to 50 per cent on a purchase.

Package tours

With 300 partner outlets in Singapore, the airline launched similar BPP editions for transit Singapore, Australia, Bali, Bangkok, Malaysia, New York and the Philippines. The UK and Japan editions will be launched next year and the India edition is likely to be launched by 2009.

"The BPP programme is one way to promote India. We are also looking at other ways," said Mr Forshaw.

This includes package tours involving India and Singapore, where tourists can `experience' India and shop in Singapore for Indian and other East Asian items.

Leisure tourism

Singapore Airlines will work with Tourism India and other State tourism bodies for promoting leisure tourism in India and would explore tie-ups with private outlets as part of the BPP programme.

The BPP Singapore programme has seen over 1.5 lakh passengers avail themselves of discounted hotel stays, according to company officials.

Why this sudden interest in India? "We are looking at emerging tourism markets to promote. In the past we popularised the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur-Bangkok sector, which today is very competitive. India has the potential to grow like this," said Mr Forshaw.

Flight frequency

The airline is also seeing demand for flights between India and Singapore, said Mr Forshaw. It plans to increase the frequency of its flights to India with New Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore likely to see two daily flights soon. It is difficult to set a timeline for this, as the airline does not have aircraft to deploy to Indian gateways, he added.

Currently, the airline uses the Boeing 777-range of aircraft on most routes, including India, and long haul flights to destinations such as New York, San Francisco, London, Sydney, Zurich and Tokyo. It is awaiting the delivery of four Airbus 380 aircraft (to be delivered this October) that will be deployed on long haul flights. "Once this happens, we will have free Boeing 777s to deploy on Indian gateways," said Mr Forshaw.

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