SIA to expand flights to and from India

SIA recently announced an alliance with Tata Group to launch a full service carrier in India

Close on the heels of announcing an alliance with the Tata Group to launch a full service carrier in India, Singapore Airlines (SIA) is looking at expanding presence its footprint in the country.

 

The airline, which along with regional wing SilkAir flies to 11 destinations within India, is looking at increasing frequencies from Delhi, Vizag and Kochi. SIA is additionally exploring opportunities to add new destinations among the 18 cities to which Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries are offered unrestricted access under a multilateral agreement with India.

 

G M Toh, general manager (India), Singapore Airlines, “We have added capacity by over 10% in India as compared to 2012. Next month onwards, we will add one more daily flight in Delhi. We will also increase weekly frequencies from Vishakapatnam and Kochi.” Singapore Airlines currently operates 56 weekly flights from six cities in India. SilkAir, the regional wing of Singapore Airlines, is a full-service airline that operates 42 weekly flights from eight cities in India. Singapore Airlines and SilkAir combined schedule feature 98 weekly flights from 11 cities in India

 

With effect from 27 October 2013, Singapore Airlines and SilkAir will boost India-Singapore services from 98 to 107 times weekly across 11 Indian cities - Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, Thiruvananthapuram and Visakhapatnam. 

 

Toh added, “We currently have around 20,000 seats available every week in India. This includes the seven cities we have been permitted to fly to within the country under the India-Singapore bilateral air services agreement and four cities among the 18 we have unrestricted access to under the Indo-Asean pact. We are interested in adding more destinations. In the long-run, we see traffic going up strongly from India.”

 

In April this year, India increased seats by 10% under the bilateral air services agreement with Singapore. While Indian airlines now have 29,300 seats available per week and for Singapore it stands at 28,600 seats. The two countries have agreed to meet every two years to discuss matters related to air services arrangements.

 

According to a recent report by Centre for Asia=Pacific Aviation (CAPA), SIA is heavily exposed to passenger markets in North America and Europe which has remained weak due to depressed global economic conditions. SIA has been trying to diversify and increase footprint in Asia-Pacific region. Over the last three years, SIA has increased frequencies to India by 24% to 98 flights every week as compared to 80 flights operated every week in 2010. It increased frequencies to China by 71% and to Australia by 45% in the same period.