Comments
Singapore Airlines will introduce a premium economy class category in its Airbus A380 aircraft on flights between Singapore and Mumbai and Delhi, from October.
The premium economy class fare will be 20-25 per cent more than the economy class fare, said David Lau, General Manager, India, Singapore Airlines. There will be 36 premium economy class seats on the flight’s upper deck, he told BusinessLine .
The premium economy class will be introduced on flights to Delhi on October 13 and to Mumbai on October 21, he said. The airline has similar category on flights from Singapore to Australia, Japan, the UK and the US, he said. “India is now a key target market for us. We have analysed for long to introduce this segment to Indian destinations,” he said.
Additional flightsLau said the airline will introduce eight additional flights in the peak season of May and June when a lot of Indians travel to Singapore. This will take the total number of flights from Indian destinations to 94 a week to Singapore. The airline, along with its sister airline SilkAir, covers 11 cities (six by Singapore Airline and five by SilkAir), he said.
On pricing, Lau said it was stable last year. The good news was that it did not decline. Travel between India and the Asean region is likely to increase, thanks to the Government of India’s Look East policy. “We are already seeing this trend among business customers,” he said.
The India-Singapore sector is a competitive one due to the presence of six major airlines, including Air India. The seat slot is almost full in this sector. “We would like to have more slots but this needs to be decided among the governments,” he said.
With growth in China being stagnant, there is a renewed confidence among investors in the Asean region to look at India for trade. Further, the Singapore government is engaged in building a new capital for Andhra Pradesh and an airport in India. This will boost the two-way passenger traffic between India and Singapore, he said.
Lau said in the last 12-18 months there is an uptake in the cargo movement in the passenger aircraft. This is precursor for better business growth. Boeing 777 aircraft can carry 18 tonnes of cargo and A380s 16 tonnes, he said.
The airline also operates its own freighters to Chennai, Delhi and Bengaluru, he said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.