S'pore Airlines looking to increase flights to Del,Hyd,Chennai

Singapore Airlines and its subsidiaries are looking to increase flights to Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai once Singapore government works out allotment of India seats.
Singapore Airlines (SIA), which currently operates three flights from Delhi and two each from Hyderabad and Chennai per week, would be increasing frequency to these Indian cities, after Singapore government works out on allotment of India seats to airlines, a senior airline official said.
SIA along with full-service subsidiary SilkAir and low-cost carrier affiliate Tiger Airways are utilising over 70 per cent of capacity between India and Singapore. The three carriers currently provide around 29,000 one-way weekly seats to India.

Last month, India has revised its bilateral air services agreement (ASA) with Singapore which allowed increase of 2,160 seats per week, about 10 per cent, for the Singapore-based carriers.
Indian carriers don't require a revised bilateral as they were using less than 40 per cent of the prior allotment. Four Indian carriers - Air India, Jet Airways, Air India Express and IndiGo - are currently offering about 11,000 one-way weekly seats to Singapore.
"We won't be able to increase any flights to Mumbai, which is second biggest market for us, as SIA is already utilising maximum permitted seats from the city," the SIA said.

The official also said that SIA, during the bilateral talks, had not asked for permission to fly Airbus A380 plane into India as the ASA between India and Singapore prohibits use of this type of wide-body, double-deck jets, which can seat as many as 525 passengers.

Commercial flying of Airbus A380 aircraft into India is barred because it may stretch the existing infrastructure at Indian airports and undermine local airlines that don't have the aircraft in their fleet.
This year, India had conducted fresh bilateral negotiations with Singapore, Oman and Abu Dhabi but refrained from including Airbus A380 in the agreements.

SIA and SilkAir currently operate 98 weekly flights to 11 Indian destinations.
Tiger, which is 39 per cent owned by SIA, currently operates 39 weekly flights to six Indian destinations.