The Hindu Business Line : Singapore Airlines – small changes for big savings

Airlines that do not believe in grounding their planes in times of rising fuel prices and sombre economic trends are taking clever measures to coast through these tough times. Like luxury, economy too, is in the detail.

Singapore Airlines (SIA) is looking at small changes that will hopefully add up to big savings such as having seats made of composite materials that make them 20-25 per cent lighter and by using new-age plastic glasses to sip champagne from.

“We are also looking at how a plane takes off. A particular trajectory or curve at take-off burns less fuel,” said Mr Cheng Eng Huang, Executive Vice-President -Marketing and Regions.

He told a team of visiting Indian newspersons that SIA was also exploring shorter alternative routes. The airline plans removing entertainment catalogues and in-flight shopping brochures, following the logic that to watch a film, travellers would switch on the system, in any case.

“We were considering the same for newspapers, but realised that our passengers want to hold their paper and read it,” said Mr Huang.

Traffic routes

Seasonal changes in trafficare also being incorporated, flights are being reduced during non-peak seasons and moved to routes showing more demand.

“In general, costs are an issue, and most airlines are finding it difficult to manage high fuel costs. Having said that, I would like to point out that our fleet is young, and the Airbus A-380, for example, has far lower fuel burn and carbon emission compared to Boeing 747,” said Mr Huang.

SIA, which would like to continue and increase its attention on the premium segment, can’t cut out the fuss. Premium is the way to go, it insists.

So, it has seats that fold into the largest and flattest beds in the sky, linen designed by Givenchy and amenities by Salvatore Ferragamo, while the culinary fare is decided by a panel of chefs that includes Mr Gordon Ramsay and Mr Sanjeev Kapoor.

“After all, an airline is just a tube of which there are two kinds – those made by Boeing and Airbus. And you can buy all of it that goes into it, what you cannot buy is the service,” said Mr Heman Freidank, Manager, In-flight services, (food and beverage, product and service division).