The Hindu Business Line : Singapore Air vying for 5 a.m. Chennai slot

Chennai March 22 Singapore Airlines, which is hopeful of securing the rights for a second Chennai-Singapore flight, prefers to slot the departure from Chennai at 5 a.m., Mr Bharat Mahadevan, Manager, Southern India, of the airline, told Business Line recently.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has approved rights for one more Chennai-Singapore flight to a Singapore-based carrier. It is now up to the Government of Singapore to decide which of its airlines will get the rights.

It is understood from industry sources that the two major contenders for the rights are Singapore Airlines and Tiger, the low-cost airline in which both the Singapore Government as well as Singapore Airlines have stakes.

The sources said that it is possible that the two carriers may be asked to share the rights, flying on different days of the week.

Load capacity

Mr Mahadevan said that the load from Chennai was picking up despite the fact that Singapore Airlines has introduced direct flights to the island country from Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Singapore Airlines operates on this segment a Boeing 777-300, which can accommodate 332 passengers.

According to Mr Mahadevan, the economy class runs full while the load is 95 per cent on the overall. Of the 332 seats in Boeing 777-300, 265 are economy class and the rest business and first classes.

Easy connectivity

He said that Singapore Airlines continued to be a leader on this route, despite other airlines such as Jet and Indian being comparatively cheaper, mainly because Singapore Airlines could carry passengers to destinations in other countries — mainly the US, Australia and China.

Which is why, a 5 a.m. departure from Chennai would make sense, Mr Mahadevan said.

The flight would reach Singapore at noon local time and passengers would not have to wait for long to catch their connecting flights to the US.