• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Our Bureau

The new service will operate on Sundays, beginning June 24

Chennai June 5 Singapore Airlines on Tuesday announced its 50th service to India, with the launch of its eighth weekly flight to Chennai. The new service will operate on Sundays, beginning June 24.

Singapore Airlines will be using the Boeing-777-200 aircraft with a two-class configuration — 30 business and 293 economy class seats — for this service, offering more connection options to several cities in the carrier's global network.

According to Mr Bharat Mahadevan, Manager, Southern India, Singapore Airlines, the seating capacity in the Chennai-Singapore sector is about 30,000 a month.

About 20,000 people travel in the segment in a month — the average load factor works out to about 70 per cent.

Mr Mahadevan said that Singapore Airlines was interested in doubling its flights between Chennai and Singapore, and was awaiting approvals for it.

BPP Programme

Singapore Airlines has also extended its Boarding Pass Privileges (BPP) Programme to its Indian customers. The BPP allows customers who present their Singapore Airline boarding pass (first, business and economy) within seven days of their flight, to enjoy value-added benefits and discounts, ranging from dining, shopping, tourist attraction, hotel accommodation to car rental.

Meanwhile, industry sources expect that Singapore-based Tiger Airways, which secured a licence on Monday to fly to six Indian destinations, would start off from Chennai.

Sources said that that the airline would compete with the existing low cost services, mainly Air India Express, the low-cost arm of Air India and Indian.

A senior official of an airline, who did not wish to be named, said that Air India Express charges Rs 6,000 including taxes, one-way to Singapore, but the industry expected Tiger to be cheaper than that. It is possible to make a profit at Rs 4,000 (including taxes) one way, the official said.

Tiger Airways has been granted the rights to fly between Singapore and Chennai, Cochin, Goa, Trivandrum, Kolkata and Kozhikode.

"Tiger Airways is now planning its flight routes and is in talks with airports and suppliers at these destinations, and will announce its initial route network to India shortly," said a press release from Tiger Airways.

Earlier this year, Tiger Airways obtained authority to operate extended twin-engine operations, which enables the airline to operate more efficient direct routings between Singapore and points in southern India.

More Stories on : Airlines | New Products & Services

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Skyteam, Oneworld alliances bullish on India

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line