Singapore Airlines to operate more flights from India

Betting big on the upcoming holiday season, Singapore Airlines is all set to increase its flights from India soon. The airline that currently flies about 95 flights from India aims to operate up to 104 flights by the end of March this year.

“We will add an additional 10 flights per week by the end of March. We will fly one extra flight from Mumbai, taking the number of flights to 18 per week from the current operation of 17 weekly flights. Apart from Mumbai, we will also increase our flight frequency from Coimbatore,” says David Lim, general manager, India operations at Singapore Airlines.

However, he notes that the airline will roll back the extra flight from Mumbai at the end of the peak season. “From our last year’s experience, we witnessed higher demand during the summer but we did not have the additional flights. The demand varies in various periods. For instance, during the holiday season, we witness a spurt in passengers as families are travelling but the same goes down in the off-peak seasons, hence the roll-back,” he adds.

According to the Ministry of Tourism statistics, Singapore continues to be among the top five international destinations for Indian travellers. The same was reiterated by Singapore Tourism Board that ranked India as the fourth largest source countries for foreign tourists. The surge in air travellers from India has also pushed the airline to change aircraft on certain routes, however, Lim did not elaborate.

Talking about the his India plans, Lim tells Fortune India that the airline is currently operating from over 11 cities and may add a few more in the coming months. “India is an important market for us. And since we will be the first airline in the world to fly the new Boeing 787-10, we are hoping to ply a few of these on our India routes in the future.”

Singapore Airlines is expected to take the delivery of the newest member, Boeing 787-10, of the Dreamliner family by the end of March this year. The airline has placed a total order of 49 Boeing 787-10 aircraft and is expected to take delivery of at least 10 aircraft by the end of this year. The new variant of the aircraft also known as the Dreamliner is the longest and seats upto 330 passengers in a two class configuration. However, its range is lower than the other two variants of the Dreamliner, the 787-8 and 787-9.

Lim admitted that India is an important market, but added that the commercial viability will be the first consideration before opening new routes. “We do not want to fly on a certain route and suddenly withdraw our operations after a year or two. We are a responsible employer and commencing operations from new cities also means hiring people. Hence, we need to figure out the sustainability factor first,” he notes.

Singapore Airlines also owns 49% of Vistara, a domestic carrier where Tata Sons is the majority shareholder with a 51% stake. The joint venture has told the media in the past that it has an open mind about bidding for Air India.

For now, Singapore Airlines directly operates flights from Delhi, Mumbai, Kochi, Bengaluru Coimbatore, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Vizag and Thiruvananthapuram.