The Creation of Singapore Airlines

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From a single plane to an internationally respected brand, almost 60 years of innovation and service has propelled the growth of Singapore Airlines to become one of the world's leading carriers with an advanced fleet. We began with three flights per week, and today our route network spans 90 destinations in almost 40 countries. Years ago, Singapore Airlines was the first to offer free drinks and complimentary headsets. More recently, we pioneered inflight telecommunications services and unparalleled inflight luxury. Soon, we will be the first to put the world’s largest plane into service.


From First Flight to Soaring Height

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The history of Singapore Airlines dates back to 1 May 1947, when a Malayan Airways Limited Airspeed Consul took off from Singapore's Kallang Airport on the first of three scheduled flights a week to Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh and Penang.


Over the next two decades, the Airline steadily acquired more planes. There were additions of the DC-4 Skymaster, Vickers Viscount, Lockheed Super Constellation, Bristol Brittania, Comet IV, and the Fokker F27.


On 16 September 1963, the Federation of Malaysia was born and the Airline became known as Malaysian Airways Limted. In May 1966, it became Malaysia-Singapore Airlines.
Later, the new look of the Airline evolved further with its first Boeings - three B707s, then a fleet of B737s.

In 1972, Malaysia-Singapore Airlines split up to become two entities - Singapore Airlines and Malaysian Airline System.

This change was used to launch a new, more modern service approach on the airline. To house a special fleet of B747s, B7272s, and DC-10s, the new Singapore Airlines also boasted a new airfreight terminal and a B747 hangar.

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The Singapore Girl is Born

In 1968, the sarong kebaya uniform designed by French couturier Pierre Balmain was introduced and the internationally recognized image of the Singapore Girl debuted.

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A Reputation for Inflight Firsts


The 1980s brought a number of firsts. The Singapore Airlines fleet continued to grow, in impressive and historic ways. It had the first A300 Superbus, the B747-300 Big Top, the B757 and the A310-200. We are also the first airline in the world to operate an international commercial flight across the Pacific Ocean with the 747-400 Megatop.


In the 1990s, Singapore Airlines revolutionized inflight communications and entertainment through the KrisFone - the first global sky telephone service - and KrisWorld offerings. At the same time, we sought to further improve our unparalleled fleet, placing a US$10.3-billion order for 22 B747-400s and 30 A340-300s in 1994, a US$12.7-billion order for 77 B777s in 1995, and a US$2.2-billion order for 10 A340-500s in 1998.


In 2000, the Airline placed 19 A380s on firm order and a US$4 billion order for 20 more B777-200s in 2001. The A380, the world's largest commercial plane will soon enter service with Singapore Airlines, making it another world’s first.

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The Highest Service Today

Singapore Airlines today is built solidly on our history, from the designer bone china flatware to the Bulgari cologne for First Class passengers, to our advanced fleet of aircraft and motivated employees.


Today, our inflight service is of the highest order. The Singapore Airlines World Gourmet Cuisine boasts a selection of exclusive and tantalising signature dishes, specially designed by a panel of nine internationally renowned chefs, and a wine list selected by three of the world's most discerning wine consultants.
KrisWorld, Singapore Airlines' award-winning and ever-expanding inflight entertainment system, offers customers a wide range of entertainment options. Customers can choose from a variety of movies, TV programmes, music CDs and channels. There is also an extensive selection of video games and interactive applications including Berlitz Word Traveler, a fully interactive learning programme.

Singapore Airlines became a full member of the global Star Alliance in 2000 and with it came "seamless" worldwide air travel. With the extensive network of partner airlines, connecting flights, frequent flyer points, and baggage clearance are now a breeze.

Singapore Airlines’ route network reaches out to over 90 destinations in close to 40 countries.

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A Future of Firsts
Singapore Airlines will make Aviation history when the Airline will become the first Airline to operate the world's largest aircraft, the Airbus A380.


The future promises to bring more firsts like these, as we at Singapore Airlines, continually strive to drive quality service through innovation.

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The Fleet

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From the beginning, Singapore Airlines learned that investing in the future means being the safest, youngest, most advanced, and fuel efficient planes in the skies. (The average age of our passenger fleet is about 6 years. Tthis excludes the A310-300s and surplus B747-400s which have been decommissioned.) That tradition continues today with the addition of ever-more advanced aircraft.

B747-400
Engine Type: PW4056
In Operation: 27

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B777-300
Engine Type: Rolls Royce Trent 892
In Operation: 12

B777-300ER
Engine Type: GE90-115B
In Fleet: -
On Firm Order: 19
On Option: 13

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B777-200
Engine Type: Rolls Royce Trent 884
In Operation:31


B777-200ER
Engine Type: Rolls Royce Trent 892
In Operation: 15

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(SIA has the flexibility to purchase any B777 model)

A340-500 (operates world's longest nonstop route from Singapore to New York)
Engine Type: Rolls Royce Trent 553
In Operation:5

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A380-800 (Will be the first airline to fly this aircraft)
Engine Type: Rolls Royce Trent 900
In Operation: -
On Firm Order: 10
On Option: 15

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Some cabin views

First Class

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Raffles Class

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Economy Class

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I was surfing their official website and here are their awards collected in from Jan-Sep 2006

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Singapore Airlines - International Award Winner (2000-2005)

2006
SEPTEMBER 2006
Business Traveller Asia-Pacific Awards 2006
Best Airline (15th consecutive year)
Best Asia-Pacific Airline
Best First Class
Best Business Class
Best Economy Class

SmartTravel Asia
Best in Travel 2006
World’s Best Cabin Service

Securities Investors Association (Singapore)
SIAS 7th Investors’ Choice Awards 2006 (2nd consecutive year)
Transport/Storage/Communications Category
Most Transparent Company Award 2006
Big Caps (above $1 billion) Categpry
Most Transparent Company Award 2006

JULY 2006

Reise & Preise Travel Magazine (Germany)
Best Economy Class (4th consecutive year)

Capital Magazine (Germany)
Intercontinental Airline of the Year 2006 (6th consecutive year)

Travel+Leisure Magazine (US)
World’s Best International Airline (11th consecutive year)

JUNE 2006

Business Traveller Middle East Award 2006
Best Asian Airline Serving the Middle East (5th consecutive year)

MAY 2006

Asian Banking & Finance Magazine
Asian Banking & Finance Travel Awards
Best Airline for Travel in Asia

CAAS
Changi Airline Awards
Top 10 Airlines by Passenger carriage 2005
Singapore Airlines

Fortune Magazine
Top 20 World’s Most Admired Companies
Singapore Airlines (Ranked 19th)

APRIL 2006

Reader’s Digest Trusted Brands
Airline Category
Platinum Award (Singapore)

Conferences Exhibitions Incentives Asia Pacific
Survey 2006
Best Airline for CEI Sector

MARCH 2006

Grand Travel Award (Sweden)
Intercontinental Airline (Ranked 2nd)

Travel & Leisure
Best International Airline for Value 2006

FEBRUARY 2006

Dutch Travel News
Best Long Haul Carrier 2005

DestinAsian (leading luxury travel and lifestyle magazine, Jakarta)
Readers’ Choice Awards
Best Airline
Best First Class
Best Business Class
Best Economy Class
Best Inflight Entertainment
Best Frequent Flyer Programme

Pacific Asia Travel Association
Grand Award in Marketing
SIA Recovery Initiatives – Maldives, Sri Lanka and Bali
Gold Award in the Marketing, Carrier (International-Air)
Boarding Pass Privileges Programme 2006

Irish Travel Trade News Awards
Best Airline to Asia & Australiasia

JANUARY 2006

Business Traveller Germany 2006
Best Airline to Asia and the Pacific Area (Overall)
Best Airline for Safety
Best Airline for Cabin Crew
Best Airline for Service on the Ground
Best Airline for Cabin Appearance
Best Airline for Catering

‘Lifestyle’ Periodical (China)
Travel Category
Most Influential Brand in 2006

‘Reisrevue’ (Dutch Travel Magazine)
Best Long Haul Carrier 2005

Singapore Airlines to fly to Milan and Barcelona from July

02 May 2006 1541 hrs (SST) 0741 hrs (GMT)

SINGAPORE : Singapore Airlines (SIA) will commence thrice weekly flights to two popular European destinations, Barcelona and Milan, starting July 19, the carrier said Tuesday.

Flights will depart the city-state every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening for Milan and then on to Barcelona, SIA said in a statement.

On the return leg, flights will depart Barcelona every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday morning for Milan and then Singapore.

SIA is among the world's most profitable carriers but high oil prices have affected its bottomline.

Latest financial figures available showed the carrier's net profit in the December quarter fell 14.6 percent to S$397 million (US$251 million) as expenses ballooned due to soaring jet fuel costs. - AFP/ch

12 July 2006

SIA clinches top international airline award for 11th consecutive year

SINGAPORE : Singapore Airlines has done it again.

It has been voted the top international airline in the World's Best Awards survey by leading travel magazine Travel+Leisure for the 11th consecutive year.

This comes shortly after it won the "Best Intercontinental Airline" title in the annual Airline of the Year awards by German business magazine, Capital, for the sixth time.

SIA says these awards are recognitions of the airline's effort in adapting to its customers' ever-changing tastes and preferences. - CNA /ls

Copyright © 2006 MCN International Pte Ltd

Business Times - 21 Jul 2006

SIA spices up its in-flight menu

By NOOR AISHA

STARTING next month, Singapore Airlines (SIA) will introduce a brand-new Indian meal concept for its first-class passengers - the Shahi Thali.

Specially designed by internationally-acclaimed chef Sanjeev Kapoor, the Shahi Thali - which means 'Royal Banquet' - will be a feast in the sky comprising a starter, two types of chutneys (Indian relish), up to four entrees, rice, Indian bread and a signature desert. Topped off with lassi and masala tea, Shahi Thali will be available on all SIA flights between Singapore and New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

A newly appointed member of SIA's International Culinary Panel, Mr Kapoor is one of the most celebrated chefs in India. He is best known as the host of a hit TV cooking series Khana Khazana, which has over 150 million viewers in 60 countries. It is currently the longest-running TV programme in India - a total of 13 years since it first aired in 1993.

'We wanted something exotic, but it also had to be relevant - nice, lean and natural,' says Mr Kapoor. According to him, Shahi Thali meals have an 'Indian soul', yet contain a touch of modernity. 'We added more fruit into dessert, so that people can eat it - otherwise it becomes too sweet and heavy.' For example, one desert option available is Rabdi malpua, a sweet dessert comprising pancake served with stewed fruit.

Mr Kapoor, who gets cooking ideas by 'keeping his eyes and ears open', says that his cooking philosophy is to 'make Indian food accessible, allowing the novice cook to cook any meal, from a maharaja's (king in English) feast to your mom's cooking, with uncomplicated recipes and cooking processes'.

The fan of Singapore hawker cuisine says that he likes home-cooked food best, as 'it is not cooked blindly - we know who we are cooking for, and the food is cooked with love, care and passion'. As for who does the cooking at home, he laughs and says that his wife also cooks, and that she makes better chappati (Indian bread) than he does. 'I travel a lot, and if it was only me that did the cooking, my family would be really hungry,' quips the 42-year-old father of two daughters.

Mr Kapoor has been cooking professionally since the age of 25, and chose to become a chef as he wanted to do something 'completely different and creative'. In his free time, he enjoys listening to music - everything from Hindi songs to rock.

Going forward, Mr Kapoor hopes to continue as long as he can with Khana Khazana, and also hopes to come up with 'more books, more restaurants and more foodstuffs'.

Copyright © 2005 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. All rights reserved.

SIA to buy 20 Airbus A350s, nine A380s

SINGAPORE : Singapore Airlines has signed a letter of intent to buy 29 new passenger jets - 20 A350s and nine A380s - from European aircraft manufacturer Airbus, the company said Friday.

The firm order is worth US$7.5 billion and includes an option for another 20 A350s and six more of the double-decker A380s, SIA said.

Deliveries of the A350 XWB-900s, dubbed extra wide-body, are scheduled to begin in 2012 and run through to 2014 while the nine additional A380s will begin arriving in late 2008 and run until 2010, SIA said.

The announcement of the deal came one month after the profitable carrier reached a deal with Airbus' US rival Boeing for 20 Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft worth US$4.5 billion.

SIA plans to be the first airline to fly the A380, the biggest commercial airliner ever, when it takes delivery of the first of 10 super-jumbos on order by the end of the year.

Technical problems on the A380 had earlier prompted the carrier to express its disappointment over delays in deliveries which have been progressively pushed back.

"This latest order, together with Singapore Airlines' order in June for 20 Boeing 787s, will position the airline well for future growth and uphold our policy of continuous fleet renewal and modernisation," SIA chief executive officer Chew Choon Seng said.

The A350 has just been reconfigured after clients complained Airbus had failed to match up to Boeing's 787 Dreamliner which has won hundreds of orders. - AFP/ch

More A380s?! :eek:

How big is the A350?

More A380s?! :eek:

How big is the A350?

More A380s - obviously to replace Boeing 747-400s.

Emirates has orders of 45 Airbus A380 already.

A350 - 12 inches wider than A330.

Singapore Airlines inks deal for Boeing 787 order

2 Oct 06

SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) said it has signed a purchase agreement to buy 20 Boeing 787-789 jets, with options for another 20 of the planes.

The agreement confirms plans announced in June, when the carrier said it had signed a letter of intent with US manufacturer Boeing, the company said in a statement.

SIA said the purchase agreement was signed last week and the planes, the latest variant of the 787 series known as the Dreamliner, should be delivered between early 2011 and mid-2013.

Based on Boeing's catalogue prices, the 20 firm orders are worth US$4.52 billion (S$7.18 billion). SIA plans to deploy the 787s on routes to North Asia, the Indian sub-continent and the Middle East.

Boeing bills the planes as offering unmatched fuel efficiency. They can carry between 250 and 290 passengers and have a range of 8,600 to 8,800 nautical miles (15,900 to 16,300 kilometres).

SIA is one of the world's most profitable airlines. In the first quarter to June, the airline recorded a net profit of S$575.1 million, more than double that of the same period last year. -- AFP

Singapore Airlines adds a touch of haute couture

12 Oct 06

Singapore Airlines (SIA) is adding a touch of haute couture.

The carrier said Thursday it will feature amenities designed by French fashion house Givenchy on its new Boeing 777-300ER and Airbus A380 aircraft.

The nearly 200 designer items include larger cushions and down-filled pillows, SIA said in a statement.

"First class customers will be able to lounge in style in the new Givenchy sleeper suit and plush suede slippers. For business and economy class customers, the fashion house has also created new eyeshades and sockettes to ensure that customers enjoy quality rest on board," it said.

First and business class passengers will be served their meals on Givenchy-designed tableware and linen, it added.

SIA's new 777-300ER jets are to begin arriving next month.

The carrier was originally supposed to receive the first of an original order of 10 double-decker A380s early this year but delays have progressively pushed back the plane's arrival.

Airbus this month announced another delay in the program and said Singapore's first A380 will now be delivered in October of next year.

SIA will be the first carrier to fly the super jumbo A380.

SIA launches next generation cabin products, pegged to premium travel

17 Oct 06

SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) has launched its latest range of next generation cabin products pegged to premium air travel and product and service excellence.
It boasts of the latest seat designs and a state-of-the-art inflight entertainment system, among other step-ups.

'This is by far our most important and comprehensive product and service development programme,' said Mr Bey Soo Khiang, SIA Operations and Services senior executive vice-president.

'What we are introducing today is a suite of products that meets, if not exceeds the expectations of the increasingly sophisticated world traveller,' he said on Tuesday.

The 570-million-dollar product and service development programme marks the completion of an extensive four-year project.

The timeline was part of the carrier's fleet expansion plan that will welcome the Boeing 777-300ER (extended range) and the Airbus A380.

The changes were made with customers' feedback in mind, said SIA.

KrisWorld inflight entertainment system
The next generation KrisWorld inflight entertainment system offers over 1,000 on-demand movies, TV programmes, interactive games, music, as well as learning applications.

New additions include office tools like spreadsheet, presentation and word processing.

The first in the world to launch the latest eX2 inflight entertainment system, SIA now boasts larger, high-resolution screens across all three classes, and compact intuitive handsets.

Every seat also provides external USB ports, as well as new noise reduction headsets for first and business class travellers.

New seats
Other revamps include the design of new seats, which allows for more personal space and legroom across all three first, business and economy classes, said SIA.

In particular, the new leather seat in first class, 89cm wide, is the most spacious of its kind offered by a commercial airline.

There will be only eight such seats in the cabin for greater privacy, the carrier said.

Meanwhile, the 76-cm business class seat measures a generous 50 per cent wider than most other carriers'.

Both can be converted into a fully-flat bed, for greater comfort while travelling.

Customers travelling on Singapore Airlines' new B777-300ER services from this December, between Singapore and Paris, and subsequently Zurich, will be the first to experience these new products.

SIA is scheduled to take delivery of its first B777-300ER in November 2006, of the 19 it has on firm order, it said. Ten will enter service by the middle of 2007.

The Airbus A380 aircraft will also feature variations of some of these products when it joins the fleet.

By E-von Yeung, Straits Times Interactive

Singapore Airlines hopes to raise ticket prices


SINGAPORE –– Singapore Airlines (SIA) is hoping to raise ticket prices starting in December as it rolls out its first batch of aircraft with upgraded interiors, the carrier said Tuesday.

SIA says it is spending 360 million US dollars on the development and installation of wider seats, a next-generation entertainment system and enhanced service on the Boeing 777ER aircraft and Airbus A380 super jumbo.

"With the improvement in the product, all the space and comfort we give you, we do expect a differential in pricing," SIA executive vice president for marketing Huang Cheng Eng said after unveiling the new interior design.

Huang said he expects SIA to raise ticket prices by 10-20 percent.

Customers travelling on Singapore Airlines' new Boeing 777-300ER between Singapore and Paris in December will be the first to experience the new cabin products, SIA said.

The first of 19 777-300 Extended Range aircraft will arrive in November. SIA is to be the first airline to fly the double-decker Airbus A380 aircraft

The carrier was originally supposed to receive the first of an original order of 10 A380s early this year but delays have progressively pushed back the plane's arrival.

Airbus this month announced another delay in the program and said Singapore's first A380 will now be delivered in October of next year. –– AFP

go to singaporeair.com for pics and more info!

Man, they look great!

TORONTO

Just Amazing,great work :okay:

:eek2: :eek: :eek2: :eek:

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Singapore Airlines could cancel Airbus order

18 Oct 06

PARIS - Singapore Airlines could cancel an order for nine Airbus A380 superjumbos if there are excessive delays to its delivery, French newspapers reported.

'If the deliveries are too far away and take place at a moment during which we do not need them, we could indeed cancel them,' Mr Bey Soo Khiang, senior executive vice-president of the airline, was quoted as saying in La Tribune.

Airbus, the aircraft maker controlled by aerospace group EADS , has not have given Singapore Airlines a precise schedule for all the deliveries, La Tribune said.

A Singapore Airlines spokesman said: 'The comment quoted in the French media refers only to the option that exists in the Purchase Agreement to cancel deliveries that are delayed. There has been no decision to exercise any cancellation rights under the Agreement. We therefore can't rule any options in or out at this time, which is the position we have maintained since the delay was announced.'

Airbus could not be reached for comment.

The order for nine A380s comes on top of a firm order of 10 aircraft signed last year by the airline, the world second largest by market capitalisation, La Tribune noted.

Airbus has revealed a string of internal problems which have led it to delay the first deliveries of its superjumbo A380 aircraft.

Singapore Airlines said on Tuesday it had spent US$360 million on interior design for its new aircraft including first-class seats that are nearly 1m wide. -- REUTERS

Nikom, I this that picture you posted is believe it or not is their current seat fitted on their planes right now, not the new ones being introduced!!!

Singapore Airlines new seats will redefine comfort levels! They are the widest seats of any commercial carrier in the world, look how wide they are!!. LCD's galore, First class having 23 inches, Business having 15 inches and economy having 10.6 inches.

Pictures from http://www.singaporeair.com

First Class

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Business Class (Raffles class brand has been removed)

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Economy Class

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I'm so glad I'm a member of Star Alliance, SIA really is a credit to them. Singapore Airlines says it will charge 10-20 % premium on the services apparently, but seeing that their product is so revolutionary, I bet it'll be a success once again, especially when you consider their rivals Malaysia Airlines and THAI are years behind when it comes to cabin amenities, especially in comparison since they both haven't finished upgrading their aircrafts to provide inflight products that SIA have had in service since 2000.

^^Indeed, revolutionary. Business class with a 1-2-1 seat configuation is a very daring move. I wonder how would Cathay Pacific react to this.

SIN service is always super and impressive !

^^Indeed, revolutionary. Business class with a 1-2-1 seat configuation is a very daring move. I wonder how would Cathay Pacific react to this.

I suppose such a configuration reflects the trend of those that travel Business Class often. Perhaps many travel alone and would likely want the privacy.

I also note that branding wise, its now simply called Business Class again and no longer Raffles Class that if I recall, was introduced around 1990.

the business class is superb

the new business class looks kinda like emirates first class on their t7s minus the personal mini bar of course... singapore airlines just keeps breaking barriers dont they?

the new economy class seats look pretty much like what used to be their executive economy on the sin-lax and sin-ewr flights. sia should really allow sharing of the business and first class seats - its a waste of fuel to carry so little people!

Business Times - 26 Oct 2006

Hock Lock Siew
Not plain luxury, but a necessity

By VEN SREENIVASAN

SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) must have some pretty good reasons for spending US$360 million on the luxurious new seating and sleeping arrangements it has just unveiled for its cabins. So what are those reasons?

The new Givenchy-designed cabins featuring luxurious First Class sleeper bed-seats almost a metre wide, or the airline's 76cm-wide Business Class flat-bed seats, could in themselves provide some passengers with the space for some naughty dalliances miles high in the sky.

It is notable in a highly competitive market just how far airlines will go, and how much they will cough up to outfit their planes with the latest luxuries. Just how can the payback justify the frills?

SIA is spending big money to undertake its biggest cabin facelift ever - in terms of dollars-per-seat as well as the overall price. It amounts to just over one-fifth of the airline's total revenue for the previous two years. And this is on top of some US$12 billion (based on list prices) that SIA is spending on fleet renewal involving new Airbus A380 and A350 planes and Boeing 787 aircraft.

The cabin upgrading programme - four years in the making - was earlier planned to coincide with the arrival of SIA's first A380 in December.

But with that aircraft delayed for a further 10 months, the cabins will initially be seen in new B777-300ERs, the first of which will join SIA's fleet next month.

The last time SIA did a major product upgrade was in 1998, when it spent some US$500 million on its B747 rollout. The 747 fleet was, of course, much bigger than the B777-300ER on which it is spending the US$360 million.

So, might SIA Line is overdrawn have gone overboard, especially given the high fuel price, and environmental and market uncertainties?

The short answer is: No.

Leading global carriers like SIA get between 50 and 70 per cent of their revenues from premium-class seats. SIA officials have let out that the airline gets up to 18 per cent of its revenue from First Class seats and about another 50 per cent from Business Class.

While airlines do not reveal the breakdown in terms of earnings contribution, analysts reckon premium passengers account for well over two-thirds of total seat yield.

UBS Investment Research released a study two months ago showing that carriers like SIA, Cathay Pacific and British Airways (BA) have done exceptionally well despite high fuel prices because of their strong position in the premium and corporate markets. Citing a survey of some 180 travel managers, UBS noted that corporate travel had a low price elasticity.

SIA's last Business Class upgrade was in 2002. But competitors have upgraded too. Emirates and Cathay Pacific have had two Business Class seat and cabin upgrades in the past four years.

And in 2000, BA introduced what it claimed were the first truly flat beds in its Club World service. Next month, BA will unveil a further 100 million (S$295 million) investment in even newer seats.

SIA and its rivals are facing a dynamic and competitive market where the ability to extract a premium price depends on high-margin products. And the life cycles of these premium-grade seats are getting steadily shorter. So rather than opt for incremental improvements, airlines like SIA have to drive their superior brand names via innovations which takes them leaps ahead of the competition. And that edge, in product differentiation and branding, enables SIA to charge more than its rivals can for Business and First Class seats.

SIA has already revealed that a ticket on a plane fitted with is latest posh cabin will cost 10-20 per cent more. Given that it already charges a 10 per cent premium over its rivals, this translates into a premium of almost 30 per cent.

And SIA cannot hope to command that kind of pricing and still hope to fill its Business and First Class cabins with half measures. So expenditure on premium-class frills has, in SIA's case, a direct bearing on the quality of its earnings. For the airline, it is not a luxury but a necessity.

Copyright © 2005 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. All rights reserved.

Business Times - 27 Oct 2006

SIA to add Asia, US routes for new Boeing aircraft

By VEN SREENIVASAN

(SINGAPORE) Singapore Airlines will deploy its new Boeing 777-300ER planes, with new cabin products, on routes within Asia and the US, in addition to Europe.

The aircraft will be delivered progressively from November, and will enter commercial service on the Singapore-Paris route in early December 2006.

But SIA will also deploy the planes for its six times daily Singapore-Hong Kong and thrice-weekly Singapore-Milan-Barcelona flights in December.

And in January, the new planes will be deployed on the daily Singapore-Zurich flights, followed by Singapore-Seoul-San Francisco service in March.

In May, the newest plane will be put on the daily Singapore-Frankfurt route.

'Beyond the destinations we're announcing now, we will look at further deployments gradually to other cities in Europe, the South Pacific and North Asia, including China,' said SIA's spokesman Stephen Forshaw.

'We'll make announcements about those further schedules in the future,' Mr Forshaw added.

SIA has ordered 19 of the B777-300ER planes and expects to receive six B777-300ERs this year and four more by mid-2007, followed by nine in 2008.

The aircraft will be fitted with the airline's new range of cabin products, including the largest First and Business Class seats with fully flat beds, a more spacious Economy Class, and an enhanced KrisWorld inflight entertainment system featuring over 1000 options, plus a suite of office applications.

Copyright © 2005 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. All rights reserved.

Business Times - 16 Nov 2006

SIA passenger load factor rises to 77.9% in Oct

SINGAPORE Airlines filled 77.9 per cent of its seats in October as passenger carriage rose 8 per cent year-on-year to 1.54 million against a capacity increase of 3.7 per cent.

The airline attributed the improvement in passenger load factor - from 74.7 per cent a year earlier - to continuing strong traffic in the South-west Pacific region, particularly the Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Auckland services.

'The strong passenger traffic from the long Deepavali-Hari Raya break in South-east Asia and school holidays in Australia also contributed to the high rate of air travel growth,' SIA said in a statement.

But the airline's cargo load factor fell to 62.4 per cent in October - from 68.1 per cent a year earlier - due to lower shipments to East Asia, the Americas and Europe. Cargo load factor was also depressed by an increase in capacity arising from higher belly-holds and additional capacity from two aircraft that were returned from lease at end-September.

'The seasonal shutdown of manufacturing plants in India and the Middle East during the long Deepavali-Hari Raya break in October caused much of the slowdown in exports to the Americas, Europe and East Asia regions,' SIA said.

The airline's overall load factor was 68.2 per cent, down from 70.3 per cent a year earlier.

Copyright © 2005 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. All rights reserved.

SIA takes delivery of Boeing 777-300ER jets

29 Nov 06

SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) has taken delivery of its first two Boeing 777-300ER (extended range) planes from an order placed with the US manufacturer two years ago.
SIA ordered 19 B777-300ERs in August 2004 and the first six are to be delivered by year's end, the airline said in a statement on Wednesday.

The new planes will enter commercial service next month, flying to Paris, Hong Kong, Milan and Barcelona.

The 777-300ER's arrive as SIA awaits delivery of its first double-decker A380 superjumbo from Boeing rival Airbus.

SIA is set to be the first carrier to fly the A380 but delays in delivery have progressively pushed back the plane's arrival from early this year until October of next year.

SIA has ordered 19 of the Airbus superjumbos. -- AFP

Nov 30, 2006
SIA gets 2 new luxury-fitted Boeings

By Aviation Correspondent, Karamjit Kaur

SEATTLE - THE wind chill plunged the mercury to minus 10 deg C, but a warm, festive spirit prevailed when Singapore Airlines (SIA) took delivery of two new Boeing 777-300ER planes at the manufacturer's facility here in the United States on Tuesday.

The airline has ordered 19 such planes, which come with wider seats, more legroom and bigger personal entertainment screens in all classes.

The planes will be put into service from Tuesday on the Singapore-Paris route, and the day after, on the Singapore-Hong Kong route.

By year-end, six of the planes would have arrived; by the middle of next year, passengers flying to Milan, Barcelona, Zurich, Seoul, San Francisco and Frankfurt will also be able to enjoy the roomier cabins and larger entertainment screens.

All 19 B777-300ERs, which cost SIA $570 million, will be delivered by 2008.

At the delivery ceremony, held partly outdoors where the two planes were berthed, SIA chief executive officer Chew Choon Seng said: 'The welcome has been a lot warmer than the weather.'

He added that SIA was 'proudly accepting' the new planes, which will bump up SIA's fleet of B777s to 60. The carrier has almost 100 planes in all.

Mr Chew, joined by Boeing's chief of commercial planes Scott Carson, was also 'particularly pleased' to unveil the aircraft's new fittings, which are unparalleled in 'space, comfort and functionality'. Seats in first class are 89cm across, 30cm more than now; those in business class are 76cm wide, 25cm more than now.

In economy class, where consumers are more price sensitive, less space has been added but legroom has been increased, and the personal entertainment screens are 10.6 inches wide, up from the current 6 inches.

For this extra comfort and luxury, passengers will pay about 10 to 20 per cent more.

This is to make up for the aircraft being able to fit in just 278 seats, compared to 322 in the similarly-sized B777-300, and 375 in the B747 jumbo, which now serves some of the routes the new plane will take over.

SIA will schedule more flights for these markets, to mop up excess demand.

Mr Chew is confident that passengers, especially premium travellers, will pay more for 'top-notch quality'.

Mr Chew was asked whether the airline was keen on the newer B747-8 - available after 2010 - since it was phasing out its B747 jumbos.

He replied that it would depend on whether rival Airbus can lick the production problems which have plagued its superjumbo A380 aircraft.

Mr Chew said: 'I think the B747-8 would be a lot more interesting to us should the A380 not make it into service. I don't think that will be an eventuality, but you'll never know.'

karam@sph.com.sg

Copyright ? 2006 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.

Business Times - 05 Dec 2006

SIA's new B777-300ER begins flights today

(SINGAPORE) A NEW era in premium air travel begins today as Singapore Airlines' (SIA) first Boeing 777-300ER (Extended Range) aircraft embarks on its inaugural commercial flight from Singapore to Paris.

Fitted with an entirely new cabin, the new aircraft features the world's widest First and Business Class seats with fully flat beds, more spacious Economy Class seats, as well as a leading-edge KrisWorld inflight entertainment system with larger screens and more than 1,000 options, including the world's first inflight office application software.

'We have been receiving very positive feedback on our new products since they were launched in October and we thank all our customers for their support,' said Huang Cheng Eng, SIA's executive vice-president, marketing and the regions. 'Our new 777-300ERs offer a truly premium travel experience. With the aircraft joining our fleet, our customers can indulge in a cabin that promises enhanced personal space, luxury and comfort in all classes, and experience the new industry standard for premium air travel.'

SIA's next-generation cabin products, the result of a four-year development project that cost US$360 million, were unveiled in Singapore in October.

After the Paris service, the 777-300ER will operate on the Singapore-Hong Kong route from tomorrow, and on the Singapore-Milan-Barcelona route from Dec 20. The aircraft will be deployed next year to other key cities in Europe, Asia and the United States, such as Zurich, Frankfurt, Seoul and San Francisco.

Copyright © 2005 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. All rights reserved.

Business Times - 08 Dec 2006

SIA ups flights to HK, Auckland, Bangalore

By VEN SREENIVASAN

SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) has increased the number of flights to Auckland, Hong Kong and Bangalore to cater for higher travel demand, especially over the Christmas and New Year periods.

SIA will fly additional frequencies between Singapore and Auckland, New Zealand, during the year-end period. From early December 2006, the airline will operate an additional two weekly flights on Thursdays and Saturdays, between the two cities.

Frequencies will be further increased with an extra weekly flight, operating on Fridays, between early-January 2007 and end-February 2007. These supplementary flights will boost the total number of weekly flights to Auckland between December 2006 and February 2007 from 10 to 13.

In addition, SIA will operate an additional three weekly flights between Singapore and Hong Kong each week.

These extra flights, which operate on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, will be in effect until mid-January 2007.

From end-March 2007, SIA will increase its scheduled flights to the city with four more weekly flights. This brings the total number of weekly flights to the city to 42.

And in what appears to be a response to budget carrier Jetstar Asia's decision to pull out of Bangalore in India, the airline has increased its scheduled frequencies to the Indian city, with an additional flight operating on Tuesdays.

With the increase, the airline now flies six times weekly to Bangalore.

Copyright © 2005 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. All rights reserved.

SIA always fly higher than MAS...but i believe MAS under new CEO will take her higher. PEACE

Dec 11, 2006
SIA may buy more B777-300ERs if needed

By Istanbul

ISTANBUL - SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA), Asia's largest carrier by market value, said it may buy more Boeing 777-300ERs so it can continue to grow if there are further delays with Airbus' A-380.

'B777-300ERs in our experience would be a useful alternative to A-380s,' chief executive officer Chew Choon Seng said in an interview in Istanbul on Saturday.

'We could upsize the order if there are further delays with the A-380,' he said.

SIA began taking delivery of six B777-300ERs last month and expects to have 10 in service by the middle of next year.

Mr Chew has said the 278-seat planes will mitigate part of the loss in capacity from the lack of A-380s. Other carriers, including Emirates and FedEx, have also turned to the B777-300ER to replace the A-380.

The Singapore-based airline has 10 firm orders for Airbus' 555-seat A-380, the world's biggest commercial aircraft, and said in July that it intended to buy nine more.

Since then, Airbus has pushed back the delivery date because of wiring problems, and the carrier does not expect to get the first of the planes until October next year, instead of this month as previously planned.

SIA placed a US$3.6 billion (S$5.6 billion) order in August 2004 for 18 B777-300ERs and has the option to buy 13 more.

Emirates, Airbus' biggest A-380 customer, in October said that it planned to lease at least five additional B-777s to help compensate for the shortfall in capacity caused by A-380 delivery delays.

FedEx, the largest air cargo company, said on Nov 7 that it would cancel its order for 10 freighter versions of the A-380 valued at as much as US$2.3 billion.

It will instead buy 15 B-777 freighters for as much as US$3.6 billion. It was the first order cancellation after the Toulouse, France- based Airbus pushed back its A-380 delivery schedule for a third time on Oct 3.

Earlier this month, Airbus promised Thai Airways that there would be no more delays in the delivery of its new A-380 superjumbos, as one of the planes headed to Bangkok to convince Thai Airways not to cancel its order for six aircraft.

The planemaker sent the world's largest aircraft on the special trip to Asia to visit Bangkok, after the Thai flagship carrier threatened to cancel its order and demanded compensation for the delays.

BLOOMBERG NEWS

CONTINGENCY PLAN

'B777-300ERs in our experience would be a useful alternative to A-380s. We could upsize the order if there are further delays with the A-380.'
MR CHEW, SIA's chief executive, on the carrier's plans to sustain growth

Copyright © 2006 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.

Dec 16, 2006
Prized air route: Another glimmer of hope for SIA

By Karamjit Kaur

IT HAS always been the big prize and it has always been just out of reach for Singapore Airlines (SIA).

The route between Australia and the United States has long been a huge money-spinner for Australian airline Qantas - and a firmly closed shop for SIA.

It came close in September 2003 when Singapore and Australia signed an expanded air services deal. This gave SIA the green light to fly anywhere in Australia, with no restrictions on frequency and capacity - but a red light for the Pacific.

The years since have seen SIA's hopes continually raised then dashed, yet nothing has changed. The Pacific route remains a duopoly, monopolised by Qantas with a 75 per cent share. United Airlines takes the rest.

But now there is new hope in the unlikely form of a proposed A$11.1 billion (S$13.5 billion) Qantas buyout by Texas Pacific Group and Australia's Macquarie Bank.

SIA's argument - backed by some Australian politicians - is that with Qantas in private hands, there will no longer be a case to keep the Pacific route closed and protect the Australian flag carrier in the name of national interest. The only interest that will be served is private interest - partially Texan at that.

Seems simple. But given the history of Singapore-Australia air relations, SIA should be prepared for anything and perhaps in the end, nothing.

Singapore's air policy is clear - open skies and free competition is the only option if the country aims to establish itself as the premier air hub in the region.

When the 2003 agreement was sealed, Australia and Singapore reiterated that full liberalisation was the ultimate goal.

In November 2004, Australia's then-Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister John Anderson told the Australian Financial Review newspaper that his government would consider granting SIA unlimited access to Pacific routes within 12 to 18 months.

Three months later, another glimmer of hope. Singapore's then-Transport Minister Yeo Cheow Tong and Mr Anderson agreed to draw up a road map by the middle of last year that would let SIA on to the Pacific route.

There seemed good reason to pop the champers, but the joy was short-lived and it has been downhill for SIA since.

In February, the Australian Cabinet rejected Singapore's request for open skies.

It instead encouraged privately-owned Australian airline Virgin Blue to move ahead with plans to launch a transpacific service.

Australia's position is that it has little to gain from granting extra rights to SIA unless it can also get more landing rights in key destinations in Europe, Britain and Japan.

When Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong visited Australia in June, he made another push, stressing that liberalisation would benefit all parties involved.

That was the last time the matter got an airing - until now.

Qantas, which reaps about 15 per cent of its net profit from the Sydney-Los Angeles route alone, has lobbied hard to keep SIA out.

The airline, with chief executive (CEO) Geoff Dixon leading the charge, claims that more competition will cost it as much as A$44 million a year in lost earnings - which could affect jobs.

SIA counters by saying that opening up the route would increase the number of travellers between Australia and the US by as much as 8 per cent and boost tourism receipts by more than A$110 million a year.

The proposed new owners of Qantas have said they will keep Mr Dixon as CEO so there is not going to be a let-up in pressure to keep SIA out of the transpacific route.

What could swing in SIA's favour is the fate of 37,000 Qantas employees. If the bid to trim fat and boost competitiveness costs jobs and sees work outsourced, Qantas could lose support.

Government senator Barnaby Joyce of Queensland is already hostile, saying of the buyout: 'You might as well put a lone star on the tail instead of the kangaroo.'

It is impossible to see how the saga will play out, given the political sensitivities.

But if nothing else, SIA, eyes still firmly on the prize, has another chance to push for its case.

Copyright © 2006 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.

^^ :lovethem: excellent SQ !!!!!

Dec 19, 2006
S'pore Airlines hits record high on strong passenger, cargo traffic

By Lee Su Shyan

SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) shares took off yesterday and reached a record high, buoyed by news of a bumper period for passengers and cargo last month.

Investors drove the stock up 80 cents to $17.90 and the 5.92 million shares traded was nearly three times higher than the average daily volume of two million seen over the past year.

SIA shares are now about 50 per cent higher than at the start of the year, easily outshining the 25 per cent rise in the Straits Times Index.

It has been a stellar month for the stock, given that it started December below $16.

The surging price has been driven by several factors.

SIA announced after the market closed on Friday that it filled an average 70 per cent of its combined passenger and cargo last month, compared with 69 per cent a year ago.

It has added new services - including to Karachi and Barcelona - with passenger load factors on all route regions showing improvements.

Cargo traffic also grew, with strong demand in the South-west Pacific and West Asia.

The shares also likely benefited from Friday's announcement that Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise (Sale) had been sold to Bank of China for US$965 million (S$1.496 billion). SIA has a 35.5 per cent stake in Sale.

SIA told Bloomberg that the sale was part of a strategy to dispose of non-core assets and to focus on expanding its business of air transportation and related services.

Market sentiment has also been helped by renewed hope that SIA might gain a foothold in the lucrative Los Angeles- Australia route.

Kim Eng Securities said yesterday that 'SIA's share price has seen a sharp...rise, driven by speculation that the Australian government may liberalise the transpacific route.'

This follows the acceptance by Qantas Airways of a bid from a consortium of private investors which included Texas Pacific Group.

SIA also benefited from upgrades by DBS Vickers Securities, which called a 'buy' on the stock, compared with a 'hold' previously. DBS Vickers was positive on the demand for air travel and the outlook on fuel prices.

The last time SIA shares approached such heady levels was in 2000 but they were dragged down by rising fuel costs worries and terrorism fears affecting air travel.

Copyright © 2006 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.

SIA to buy nine more A380 superjumbos
Posted: 20 December 2006 1722 hrs

SINGAPORE : Singapore Airlines is to buy nine more double-decker A380 aircraft from European aircraft maker Airbus, the carrier said Wednesday as it signed a deal announced in July.

The agreement includes an option for six more of the superjumbos.

"Singapore Airlines today signed agreements with Airbus for purchase of a further nine A380s, with six more options," the airline said in a statement. - AFP/ms

what plane do sq use to fly to jakarta from sin?

what plane do sq use to fly to jakarta from sin?

a mix of B772, B773 and A345

well done SIA!

Jan 1, 2007
SIA promises more luxury with new aircraft
Bigger monitors, wider seats, more legroom but the airfares cost more

By Aviation Correspondent, Karamjit Kaur

WITH a 76-cm wide seat which unfolds into a flat bed, and a 15.4-inch personal LCD monitor, I was ready for luxury in business class.

But it was the small improvements and enhancements in economy that delighted me when I flew Singapore Airlines' new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft to Hong Kong and back recently.

Like how the handset for the in-flight entertainment system was stowed below the screen instead of at the side of the armrest. Furthermore, boxes holding the equipment for the entertainment system - normally found under every seat - were removed, giving more legroom.

Even the headphones were better - not too rounded at the top so they fit more comfortably and with just one wire from the right side instead of two.

It all added to less clutter, less fuss and overall, a more pleasant flight.

Many passengers also enjoyed the 10.6-inch LCD monitors - about four inches bigger compared to normal screens in economy class.

Economy-class seats in the new Boeing aircraft are 48cm wide, just 2.5cm to 5cm more than the seats in other SIA planes. But it makes a difference and passengers get more legroom too because seat backs are a little thinner.

When a seat is reclined, it also moves forward slightly so as not to encroach too much into the space of the passenger behind.

Professor Phillip Kimble, 71, a 1.88m tall psychology lecturer at the California State University, Fresno, said: 'On other flights, I am used to having my knees knock against the seat in front but here, I still have some space left.'

He gave the new aircraft and SIA's $570 million bundle of new offerings, two thumbs up: 'It's one of the best planes I have ever flown in.'

SIA, which already has six of the 19 B777-300ERs it ordered, is counting on happy passengers like Prof Kimble to be willing to pay 10 to 20 per cent more in airfares for the extra comfort and luxury.

The plane which entered into commercial service on Dec 5, also flies to Paris, Milan and Barcelona currently.

The flight to and from Hong Kong was almost full, with only a handful of seats empty. It seemed as if passengers were quite happy to part with the extra cash, although not all knew when they booked their flights that they were paying more to fly in the new aircraft.

Marketing and business development manager Donald Goh, 43, who was travelling with his wife and 11-year-old son, paid more than $600 for each return economy ticket.

He said: 'I thought the fare was higher because it was peak season. Still, I have no complaints because I know I am paying for quality.'

Business-class passengers paid more than $2,500 each for a return flight.

The higher fares make up for the loss in capacity from all the extra space, especially for first and business class passengers.

SIA's B777-300ER aircraft can carry 278 passengers, compared to 332 in a similar-size aircraft.

Business-class seats are 76cm wide, or 25cm more than normal, and are arranged four abreast, instead of six in a similar-size aircraft.

They are almost like a private cubicle with sliding screens for the two passengers seated in the middle of each row, who are not separated by the aisle.

There is also new storage space near the LCD monitor and under the seat in front, and a personal mirror for that final hair and make-up check for women before landing.

The one thing I found a little annoying though, as did Mr Julian Claxton, 33, managing director of RISQ security management in Sydney, was that the seat reclined to a maximum of 130 degrees, compared to 180 degrees for SIA's existing spacebed in business class.

If you want to go any lower, you have to get up and manually to unfold the seat into a flat bed.

Once unfolded, the bed with a separate cover and extra pillow was more comfortable than business class seats in other SIA planes that become totally flat with the push of a button.

Mr Claxton said: 'Overall, I give this seat eight out of 10, and the other spacebed seven.'

Watching movies and playing games were more enjoyable with the bigger 15.4-inch LCD monitor.

The new products on SIA's B777-300ERs represent the airline's first major revamp of aircraft cabins in nearly a decade and aim to widen the service gap between it and its competition - such as British Airways, Qantas, Cathay Pacific and Emirates.

Does SIA have a winning formula? My verdict after the Hong Kong trip, is that it does.

There are areas for improvement of course but as business-class traveller Paul Hill, 51, a New Zealander, said: 'I wish I could fly this aircraft all the way to Brisbane where I am going.'

karam@sph.com.sg

ROOM TO MOVE

'On other flights, I am used to having my knees knock against the seat in front but here, I still have some space left.'
PROFESSOR PHILLIP KIMBLE, who is 1.88m tall

Copyright © 2007 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved

This story was printed from TODAYonline

Rolls-Royce gets SIA deal

Will provide maintenance service for engines of carrier's Boeing 777 fleet

Friday • January 12, 2007

Singapore Airlines (SIA), the world's biggest carrier by market value, signed an agreement for Rolls-Royce Group to provide engine-maintenance services for its fleet of 58 Boeing 777 aircraft.

United Kingdom-based Rolls-Royce, Europe's biggest aircraft-engine maker, will provide the services through a company partly owned by the carrier's plane maintenance unit, SIA said yesterday.

No financial details were revealed.

SIA is the world's biggest operator of Boeing's 777 planes. It began taking delivery of six extended-range 777-300ERs in November last year and expects to have 10 in service by the middle of this year.

Chief executive Chew Choon Seng said last month that the carrier might buy more Boeing 777 aircraft so that it could continue to grow if there are further delays in the delivery of Airbus' A380 superjumbo jets.

"The agreement builds on the long-standing relationship between SIA and Rolls-Royce," the carrier said in its statement.

As well as powering SIA's 58 Boeing 777 planes, Rolls-Royce's Trent 800 engines will also power five of its Airbus A340-500s.

Other models of the Trent family of engines will be used for the airline's 10 Airbus A380s and 19 Airbus A330-300s for delivery from 2009.

Shares of SIA ended up 10 cents, or 0.6 per cent, at $17.90 yesterday on the Singapore Exchange. The stock has risen 42 per cent in the past six months, compared with the 26 per cent gain in the Bloomberg Asia Pacific Airlines Index. — Bloomberg

Copyright MediaCorp Press Ltd. All rights reserved.

This story was printed from TODAYonline

Rolls-Royce gets SIA deal

Will provide maintenance service for engines of carrier's Boeing 777 fleet

Friday • January 12, 2007

......As well as powering SIA's 58 Boeing 777 planes, Rolls-Royce's Trent 800 engines will also power five of its Airbus A340-500s.........

— Bloomberg

Copyright MediaCorp Press Ltd. All rights reserved.

Will?? :nuts:
The first of SIA's Trent-powered "Leaderships" (this nick has since been dropped) was delivered more than 3 years ago and all five have been in service for almost 3 years now.
No other A340-500 is on SIA's order pipeline.

Btw, its the Trent 500 and not the 800 that powered the A345s. :nuts: :nuts:

Jan 21, 2007
Singapore Girl 35 years later
Kasmah Abdul Hamid, the stewardess in SIA's first-ever ad, says it was pure luck that she was featured

By Nur Dianah Suhaimi

FORMER Singapore Airlines (SIA) stewardess Kasmah Abdul Hamid, 55, was back home for a two-week visit when she saw a picture of her 20-year-old self in the newspaper.

http://straitstimes.asiaone.com/STI/STIMEDIA/image/20070120/ST_IMAGES_NUSGIRL_8t.jpg

Last week, The Sunday Times featured SIA's first advertisement, released 35 years ago, along with a feature story asking whether it was time to retire the Singapore Girl icon.

The ad showed the profile of a young Asian woman with her lips parted slightly. 'This girl's in love with you,' the slogan gushed.

Ms Kasmah was that girl.

She quit SIA in 1979 when she married a German businessman.

Now she owns an interior decor shop in Germany and has two daughters, aged 25 and 21.

But all these years, Ms Kasmah had never known that particular ad was actually SIA's first.

She found out only when The Sunday Times told her in an interview last week.

'Other girls had their pictures taken for ads, too. We never thought very much about appearing in ads. It was just another part of the job,' she said.

As with many things in her life, she attributed her appearance in the historic ad to luck.

Born into a big family, Ms Kasmah - the fourth of nine children - was given an English education solely because the Malay school near her home had no vacancies.

Her father registered her at the next nearest school, which taught in English.

The rest of her siblings were educated in Malay schools.

After completing her O levels, she worked briefly as a bus warden, but the 19-year-old Kasmah wanted a proper job.

'Coincidentally, SIA was looking for stewardesses at that time. Since I could speak English, I just applied,' she said.

By chance, she wore a brown and white sarong kebaya and put on a wig for her job interview. Despite dropping her personal documents during the interview, she landed the job.

Just six months later, she was selected to be photographed for SIA's first ad. The photo shoot, which was conducted at the East Coast beach, took about three days.

'I was told to walk on the beach and look like I was in love,' she said.

'I was only 19 and came from a conservative Malay family. I had no idea about love or looking in love. So I just walked like a mule,' she said.

Many other photo shoots followed, and she lost track of how many of pictures of her became SIA ads.

The only ad poster she has today is one of her with a Siamese cat.

In the 1970s, when other kampung girls had little prospect of leaving the country, she got to see the world.

'In those days, the turnaround periods could stretch up to a week,' she said.

'I had time to take a train up to Oxford when SIA flew to London. When we flew to Osaka, I took a train to Kobe.'

Things changed after she met her future husband through a mutual friend in Dubai. Her erratic flying schedule and costly long-distance telephone calls prompted the couple to get married quickly.

She quit her job after the wedding and moved to Saudi Arabia, where her husband was working. The couple settled down in Germany in 1994.

Said Ms Kasmah: 'I cannot imagine how my life would have turned out if that Malay school my father first approached had a vacancy. I would not have been able to see the world.'

ndianah@sph.com.sg


'This 35-year-old icon has come a long way in bringing fame to our national airline. She definitely does not deserve to be chucked away like some old car that has outlived its use.'
SENIOR SALES CONSULTANT TAN LIN NEO, 48, giving her view on whether the Singapore Girl icon should be scrapped

Copyright © 2007 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.

Jan 21, 2007
Readers express support for SIA Girl

COMPANY CEOs, former flight stewardesses, expatriates and foreign visitors wrote to The Sunday Times last week to express their support for the Singapore Girl.

Their response was triggered by a Sunday Times feature last week, discussing whether the Singapore Girl should be shelved to make way for a more modern branding icon.

While women's groups and media academics say she represents the 'subservient Asian woman' stereotype, creative industry experts feel she should be given a makeover.

Online forums have also been flooded with discussions.

Many of those who wrote to The Sunday Times were appalled that some experts reommended scrapping the Singapore Girl.

Senior sales consultant Tan Lin Neo, 48, thinks the Singapore Girl deserves more respect.

'This 35-year-old icon has come a long way in bringing fame to our national airline. She definitely does not deserve to be chucked away like some old car that has outlived its use,' she said.

British expatriate and managing director Mark Carpenter, 43, never found Singapore Airlines' ads sexist or demeaning to women.

'In fact, my wife applauds the image of the Singapore Girl and loves the standards of perfection they set for their appearance,' he said.

Some readers are concerned that the kebaya, which has become an important part of the country's identity, will be junked.

Mr Michael Miller, a visitor from the UK, said it is irrelevant that no one in Singapore wears the kebaya any more.

'No one in London dresses like the beefeaters, the colourful guards at the Tower of London. Nor do our soldiers go into battle wearing uniforms like the Household Cavalry, but these two images are among the key attractions for visitors to London,' he said.

The problem with SIA is not the sarong kebaya but the ads, said Ms Cheryl Chong, founder of a Shanghai mobile phone content firm.

'The problem is the shallow portrayal of the Singapore Girl. The advertising for Singapore Airlines has become an embarrassment,' she said.

Despite wanting the Singapore Girl to stay, some do concede that her makeup needs an update.

Personal assistant Jessica Leong, 36, suggests something more subtle than the 'screaming red lipstick and over-the-top blue eyeshadow'.

However, former stewardess April Tan, 38, believes the Singapore Girl should not be touched.

'Some old things earn their authenticity through the years and are better kept as they are.'

Nur Dianah Suhaimi

Copyright © 2007 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.

I think I just found the very first Singapore Girl ad which Mrs. Kasmah appeared at:

http://www.timetableimages.com/i-s/singap8.jpg

Courtesy of:Björn Larsson and David Zekria

Visit their website at:http://www.timetableimages.com

SIA passenger numbers dive in March
Published: 2009/04/17

SINGAPORE: Singapore Airlines (SIA) said yesterday that passenger numbers plummeted in March as the global downturn continues to weigh on travel demand.

The airline carried 1.28 million people last month, down 23 per cent year-on-year, the company said in a statement.

It added that passenger load factor (PLF), how much seating capacity is used at a given period, fell 11.4 percentage points to 69.4 per cent.

"The current global economic slowdown has weakened travel demand," SIA said in the statement.

"Consequently, all route regions registered declines in PLFs," it said.

SIA reduced capacity by 9 per cent last month due to lower demand, with the airline using smaller planes and terminating flights to Los Angeles via Taipei and Osaka via Bangkok as well as the service to Amritsar in India.

It said cargo carried by the airline in March fell 18 per cent year-on-year and freight load factor dropped 4.3 percentage points to 58.5 per cent. - AFP

Makeover for SIA's B777

16 Jul 09

A SEVERE business downturn which has hit its bottomline is not stopping Singapore Airlines from upgrading its product offerings.

The airline said on Thursday that seven of its Boeing 777-300s aircraft will get a makeover and be retrofitted with new seats and in-flight entertainment systems, among other improvements.

The work will be progressively done from now until year-end.

For competitive reasons, SIA did not want to reveal the upgrading costs.

As part of the changes, economy class seats will receive new covers.

In the premium classes, bigger seats and entertainment screens will replace the existing ones, the airline said.

In business class, for example, the entertainment screens will measure 15.4 inches, instead of just 6.5 inches now.

SIA said in a statement: 'The cabin renewal programme, launched in spite of the business challenges the world's airlines are facing, is an investment in improving our customers' travel experience.'

The changes are also being made in response to customer feedback, the airline said.

When upgraded, the aircraft will be deployed to Sydney and Shanghai, as well as to the Middle East.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_403942.html

Makeover for SIA's B777

16 Jul 09

A SEVERE business downturn which has hit its bottomline is not stopping Singapore Airlines from upgrading its product offerings.

The airline said on Thursday that seven of its Boeing 777-300s aircraft will get a makeover and be retrofitted with new seats and in-flight entertainment systems, among other improvements.

The work will be progressively done from now until year-end.

For competitive reasons, SIA did not want to reveal the upgrading costs.

As part of the changes, economy class seats will receive new covers.

In the premium classes, bigger seats and entertainment screens will replace the existing ones, the airline said.

In business class, for example, the entertainment screens will measure 15.4 inches, instead of just 6.5 inches now.

SIA said in a statement: 'The cabin renewal programme, launched in spite of the business challenges the world's airlines are facing, is an investment in improving our customers' travel experience.'

The changes are also being made in response to customer feedback, the airline said.

When upgraded, the aircraft will be deployed to Sydney and Shanghai, as well as to the Middle East.

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_403942.html

Oh my gosh, finally, but are they just replacing the seat covers for economy class? Cause you know, if you have nice seats but small screens, i dunno. Anyone can enlighten me here?

This is good news though.

^^
Im sure, by "new seats and in-flight entertainment systems" they meant the current products on board their 77W, A380 etc.

So the product is not that new.

^^
Im sure, by "new seats and in-flight entertainment systems" they meant the current products on board their 77W, A380 etc.

So the product is not that new.

Well, definitely better than the old interior ;)

I'm hoping they introduce something new, for e.g. they introduced iPod connection on their A330 - but their 773ER and A380 don't have the iPod connection.

SIA cuts pay after S$307m loss
Friday July 31 2009

SINGAPORE, July 31 — Singapore Airlines (SIA) will cut staff pay by 10 per cent after unveiling a net loss of S$307 million (RM736.8 million) in the April-June quarter — only its second-ever quarterly loss. It had recorded a net profit of S$358.6 million in the same quarter last year.

The pay cuts, set to affect an estimated 12,000 staff, are based on a formula linked to losses agreed with staff unions.

Battered by an economic downturn that has dealt a severe blow to first- and business-class traffic in particular, the airline now fears it could end the financial year on March 31 in the red.

SIA, which went public in 1984, has never posted a full-year loss. Before this, it suffered a quarterly loss only once, of S$312 million when SARS hit in 2003.

SIA said yesterday: “The group's first-quarter performance reflected the adverse business conditions for airlines. If these conditions continue, the group expects to make a loss for the full year.”

Still, its cash balance remains strong and the airline does not foresee the necessity to raise capital, the statement said.

The twin impact of the economic slump and the H1N1 flu outbreak, as well as the cost of hedging fuel, hit revenues, which fell 30 per cent to S$2.87 billion in the three months to end-June compared with the same period a year earlier.

Expenditure was down 15.8 per cent to S$3.19 billion, but in the end, the group recorded an operating loss of S$319 million, against a profit of S$343 million last year.

The parent airline alone — excluding SilkAir and SIA Cargo, as well as subsidiaries SIA Engineering and Singapore Airport Terminal Services (Sats) — suffered a quarterly operating loss of S$271 million.

This is where it hits employees.

Under agreements that SIA has signed with its three unions, staff pay can shrink by between 2.5 per cent and 10 per cent if the airline reports an operating loss of at least S$50 million in any quarter. All of the monthly variable component (MVC), which makes up 10 per cent of an employee's total pay, gets cut if losses exceed S$200 million, as they have in this case.

The MVC cut will be effective for three months. For new cabin crew, who earn a basic salary of S$1,300 a month, for example, the cut amounts to about S$130. Top management, who are already earning between 10 per cent and 20 per cent less, with effect from this month, will not be subjected to more cuts, SIA said.

Union heads contacted by The Straits Times took the news in their stride.

Captain P. James, president of the Air Line Pilots Association-Singapore said: “When we inked the agreement, we were prepared for the possibility that the full 10 per cent of the MVC could go. Of course we were hoping it would not come to this but it has and we will honour the agreement. There are no two ways about it. We hope the company will continue in its relentless efforts to bring back business so that the cuts are temporary.”

Alan Tan, president of the SIA Staff Union, which represents cabin crew and other rank-and-file staff, said: ‘These are tough times and we have to look at the big picture. If we must cut salaries to save jobs, then we must. There is no choice.”

Still, it will be difficult for staff who are already on a shorter work month scheme which affects total pay, he said.

For cabin crew especially, more than half of their take home pay comes from allowances, so the less they fly, the less they earn. Now that the pay cuts will kick in, Tan said he will speak to management about restoring the normal roster.

SIA said yesterday that the steps taken so far to cut staff costs, as well as the new MVC cuts, will save it an estimated S$60 million in the current financial year.

Losses per share for the quarter were 26 cents, down from earnings per share of 30.3 cents a year earlier. Net asset value per share grew fell slightly to S$11.76 as at June 30 from S$11.78 as at March 31.

SIA shares closed 18 cents higher at S$13.52 yesterday. — The Straits Times

SIA not ruling out further reduction in capacity
Published: 2009/08/01

SINGAPORE: Singapore Airlines (SIA), the world's second-biggest carrier by market value, may consider further capacity cuts after saying it may have its first annual loss in 24 years.

"If the traffic drops off further and market conditions result in further discounting of fares, then we will have to review the situation," chief executive officer Chew Choon Seng said here yesterday. "If things hold at this level, then we will persevere and carry on."

The deepest recession since World War II and the spread of the swine flu pandemic cut travel and pushed SIA to its first quarterly loss in six years. It said on Thursday it will cut salaries for more than 12,000 employees after earlier reducing management pay and parking planes.

The carrier on Thursday reported it had a net loss of S$307 million (S$1 = RM2.44) in the quarter ended June, compared with a profit of S$358.6 million a year earlier, due to "adverse business conditions". If that prevails, the airline may have its first full-year loss since listing in 1985, it said.

The carrier said in February it will slash seat capacity 11 per cent and take 16 passenger planes out of its fleet beginning in April. The carrier has also altered its network and reduced the frequency of services such as its all-business class flights.

SIA flew 20 per cent fewer passengers in the three months ended June from a year earlier, and filled an average 71.6 per cent of available seats, lower than the 84.3 per cent it needed to break even, according to its statement on Thursday. - Bloomberg

Singapore surrenders on US route

Matt O'Sullivan
August 10, 2009 .
SINGAPORE AIRLINES has stopped short of objecting to Virgin Blue's tie-up with US carrier Delta Air Lines on the Australia-US route, but has called for regulators to reconsider the planned deal if it leads to higher fares and fewer flights.

Singapore Airlines has long had ambitions to fly between Australia and the US but has recently resisted lobbying aggressively for authorities to open the route further amid a severe downturn in travel. It has little interest - in the short-term, at least - in entering a market that has gone from a cosy duopoly to an aggressive four-airline contest in less than a year.

Emphasising that liberalisation of the route has been ''left on the backburner'', Singapore Airlines said that the Virgin-Delta application should be reconsidered or the trans-Pacific opened to even more competition if it resulted in fewer flights or higher fares.

''If a partnership between airlines leads to fewer flights or an artificial floor on fares … then it begs the question if consumers would be better off from such an arrangement,'' the airline said in a submission to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

Air New Zealand and the Singapore Airlines-backed Tiger Airways have been vocal in their opposition to the deal, but Qantas, the biggest operator on the route, has said it would not oppose it.

Virgin and Delta unveiled plans last month to form a revenue-sharing agreement under which a steering committee would manage aircraft on the trans-Pacific route.

Delta has said it does not expect a decision from regulators in the US on its proposed tie-up for up to a year. Industry officials believe US regulators will prove the biggest hurdle to the deal.

The two airlines argue in filings to regulators that without the joint venture their ability to compete against Qantas and United Airlines across the Pacific will be ''considerably weakened''. They argue it will not reduce competition.

Australian governments have repeatedly rejected Singapore Airlines' attempts to gain entry to the route. But the Rudd Government has been careful not to publicly show its hand on whether it supports the entry of airlines from other countries, such as Singapore Airlines.


http://business.theage.com.au/business/singapore-surrenders-on-us-route-20090809-ee7d.html

^^I don't understand. Why doesn't SQ uprightly object? Qantas, I can understand, because they probably don't want to invite Virgin Blue objecting to its joint venture with BA.

SIA offers option for older staff to retire early
Monday August 17 2009

SINGAPORE, Aug 15 — Singapore Airlines (SIA) is offering older staff the option to retire early – the latest in a slew of measures to trim excess manpower and costs.

The voluntary scheme, subject to company approval, is open to Singapore-based employees aged 50 and above, who have been with the airline for at least 15 years.

In all, more than 1,000 are eligible, said SIA spokesman Nicholas Ionides in response to queries from The Straits Times. They comprise support staff, administrative officers, managers and above, as well as pilots, he said.

Successful applicants will receive a lump sum depending on their age, Mr Ionides said, without giving further details.

The Straits Times understands that the company has set a cap of between 22 and 25 months’ pay on the total payout. This means that a captain who earns about S$10,000 (RM24,300), for example, could receive over S$250,000.

It is believed that some of the unions are now in negotiations with management to increase the cap.

When contacted, Mr Alan Tan, president of the SIA Staff Union, which represents cabin crew and other rank-and-file staff, declined to comment.

A staff member who did not want to be identified said: “In the end, we have to decide for ourselves if the scheme is worthwhile. For someone in his early 50s, it may not make sense but another guy with two or three years more to go might think differently.”

SIA’s offer comes just weeks after the airline, hit by a global recession which has impacted travel demand, reported a S$307 million loss for the April to June quarter. The last time it made a three-month loss was in 2003 when SARS struck.

Back then, early retirement was also offered but SIA would not say how many people opted for the scheme at the time.

To cope with the current crisis, the airline plans to ground 16 aircraft and cut capacity by 11 per cent in the 12 months to March next year. A few aircraft have already been taken out of the operating fleet.

Apart from this latest initiative, other measures already in place include a shorter working month scheme, voluntary no-pay leave as well as pay cuts.

Management took the lead with cuts of up to 20 per cent. For all other staff, pay has been cut by 10 per cent, with effect from this month. The company said recently that the steps taken so far to cut staff costs will save it an estimated S$60 million in the current financial year, which ends in March next year.

Industry experts say that while there are some signs that the crisis could be bottoming out, recovery is not expected until next year.

For carriers like SIA that depend on first- and business-class travellers for almost half their revenues, the challenge is to win back customers, who as a result of the crisis, have either downgraded to economy class or to other less expensive airlines, including budget carriers. – Straits Times

Bomb Threat on Singapore Airlines Flight Sparks Probe

By Ed Johnson

Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Australian police are investigating a bomb threat against a Singapore Airlines Ltd. flight to Melbourne today, the airline and police said.

The carrier’s call center in Mumbai received a telephone call from someone claiming there was a bomb on board a flight from Singapore to Melbourne International Airport, airline spokeswoman Susan Bredow said by telephone.

Crew members on board flight SQ227 were alerted and carried out safety checks, she said. They determined the call was a hoax and informed passengers about an hour before the aircraft landed at 6 a.m. local time that a threat had been made, Bredow added.

The Boeing 747-400 aircraft, carrying 190 passengers and 20 crew members, landed safely, she said. As a precaution, safety checks were carried out on a later Singapore to Melbourne flight, SQ237, which also landed safely, the airline said in an e-mailed statement.

After both planes landed, “detailed security checks confirmed that the threat was a hoax,” the airline said.

The Australian Federal Police said it was notified of the bomb threat at about 2:15 a.m. and was investigating.

SIA delays A380 jetliner deliveries
Published: 2009/09/04

SINGAPORE: Recession-hit Singapore Airlines (SIA) said yesterday it had agreed with Airbus to defer the delivery of eight A380 superjumbo jetliners by six to 12 months.

The airline, which posted its first quarterly loss in six years during the June quarter, already has nine A380s in operation with two more due for delivery in the current financial year.

"The revised schedule will see the 12th aircraft delivered in October 2010 rather than April 2010, while the 19th aircraft will be delivered in January 2012 rather than January 2011," the airline said in a statement.

SIA said in July it lost S$307.1 million (S$1 = RM2.45) in the April to June period. - AFP

So SIA already has 9 of them! I didn't know that. Where do they fly them to?

LHR
CDG
SYD
MEL
NRT
HKG

Good old days may be over for SIA
Monday September 14 2009

SINGAPORE, Sept 13 – One year after the global economy went into a tailspin, taking with it the airline business, the global carriers appear to be levelling out from their steep dive.

True, business is nowhere near where it was a year ago, but demand for air travel is slowly picking up. There is no doubt that the industry will recover. But the good old days may be over for top-tier carriers like Singapore Airlines (SIA) which made hay by living off the front-end of the cabin, earning as much as 40 per cent of their revenues from first- and business-class customers.

The last 12 months have been rough for SIA and others like it.

Many travellers have downgraded from business to “cattle class”, and from premium to cheaper carriers.

Investment bankers – planeloads of them used to fill SIA’s Airbus 345 aircraft on its non-stop flights to Los Angeles and New York – are out of work or have taken hefty cuts in pay and perks.

Companies have slashed travel budgets and trimmed costs, for example, by extending the number of flying hours required to enjoy a business- class seat, or moving to an economy class-only policy.

The competition is also catching up.

Whereas low-cost carriers like AirAsia, Jetstar Asia and Tiger Airways once drew mostly budget travellers, they now see briefcase-toting folk in shirt and tie.

This trend prompted American Express to add AirAsia to its list of partner carriers – its first such tie-up with a low-cost carrier. Flyers can now use their Amex card to pay for AirAsia flights.

Peter Kapoor, Amex’s regional vice-president of merchant services, said recently: “Within our customer base, there are corporations that find budget carriers relevant, given the current economic recession and the recent opening up of more shuttle flights between Singapore and Malaysia.”

Aviation analyst Shukor Yusof of Standard & Poor’s Equity Research believes that even when the storm passes, it would be foolhardy to think people will go back to the way things were.

Companies that have changed their travel policies see the benefits to the bottom line, and travellers who have “gone low-cost” find it is not so bad after all.

Shukor said: “The business landscape has changed considerably; I don’t see things ever being the same again.”

Jetstar Asia seeto think so too and is thinking about going long-haul, thus joining Malaysia-based AirAsia X which took to the skies two years ago. The latter currently flies between Kuala Lumpur and destinations in Australia, China, India, South Korea, Japan, the Middle East and Europe.

Even the experts who are more optimistic about premium airlines’ prospects, like Berthold Trenkel, Asia-Pacific president of travel management company Carlson Wagonlit Travel, expect that it will take three years at least before things rebound to pre- crisis levels.

Going forward, the challenge for SIA is not just to fill seats. There will always be a market for top-end carriers and nobody really expects them to fall from the sky.

The bigger challenge is to attract travellers who will pay the premium fares that the airline charges.

In its latest report on the health of the premium air travel market, the International Air Transport Association (Iata) said that in June, first- and business-class ticket sales fell by 21.3 per cent compared to the same month last year.

The good news is that the fall was less steep than the 23.6 per cent drop in May.

However, the better results were achieved at the expense of much lower yields as airlines sought to boost cash flow by making more cheaper seats available.

Iata’s data shows that revenues from this segment are about 40 per cent lower, year-on-year.

Trenkel, who flew SIA to Paris recently, paid about $5,500 for his return business-class ticket, more than $1,000 cheaper than the fare a year ago.

While views differ on the long-term impact of the current crisis on high-end carriers, experts agree that airlines will have to work very hard to recover their lost business – traffic and yield-wise.

At the operational level, efforts are ongoing at SIA to cut costs and better manage the business.

The airline has introduced a slew of measures, from voluntary leave to compulsory no-pay leave, shorter working months and pay cuts, to deal with the downturn.

To better match demand with capacity, it also plans to ground 16 aircraft in the current financial year, which ends on March 31 next year.

SIA will also defer delivery schedules for its last eight Airbus A380 superjumbos, by up to a year.

The airline, which already has nine of the double-decker giants flying, will collect another two before the end of next March, as planned.

But over and above all these moves, SIA needs to think long and hard about whether its business model and strategies are sustainable in the long term.

Post-crisis, will there still be a market for the all-business-class flights to the United States, for example?

Will people pay $20,000 to fly to London in a private suite on the A380, given that a first-class ticket on another equally high-class carrier costs about half that amount?

Instead of putting all its eggs in the premium basket, the airline could focus more on Tiger Airways – which it owns 49 per cent of – to cash in on the growing low-cost travel market.

Ditto for its regional arm SilkAir. In the financial year just ended, Tiger and SilkAir contributed only about $40 million of SIA Group’s total operating profit of $904 million.

SIA could also do more to engage loyal customers and keep them happy. Whether this is by making it easier for people to redeem their miles – which some say is becoming increasingly troublesome with SIA – or embracing new media like Facebook and Twitter, the airline cannot afford to take customer loyalty for granted.

Industry analysts say the situation is dire. SIA, which lost $307 million in the April-June quarter, could be looking at a full-year loss this financial year. If that were to happen, it will be the first since the company went public in 1984.

As the world starts to recover from the economic meltdown and countries claw their way out of the recession, the real challenge has only just begun for SIA. The aim is not just to fly, but to soar. – The Straits Times

Had a flight of SilkAir before from Kunming to Singapore years ago, mostly later by American airlines, the big difference between American airlines and Asian airlines is there are a fair amount of senior flight attendants on American airlines than Asian airline, most Asian airlines are all beautiful girls and some outstanding good looking guys, what is that?

^^
Most Asians do not consider the FA job as lifelong career. Most do it for just a few years, to see the world, to make experience. After that, they are off to another career.

Singapore Airlines

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OSK revises downward SIA's projections
Published: 2009/10/16

SINGAPORE International Airlines's operating statistics for September this year continue to suggest that the worst may be over but the threat posed by downtrading in air travel and poor premium traffic still lingers, research house OSK Research said.

OSK said in an analysis of the island-state's national carrier that it was prompted to revise downward the airline's projections as the company would carry on with its aggressive pricing and capacity management.

"Nonetheless, we have decided to roll over our valuation to FY3/11 based on the existing valuation parameters of 0.85x P/B, or -1 standard deviation from its historical trading band, plus the SATS share entitlement, which translates into a new fair value of SG$11.98," it said. This implies a downside of 17.2 per cent.

SIA, the national airline of Singapore , is among the world's most profitable airlines.

Its major shareholder is the government's investment arm, Temasek Holdings (Pte) Ltd, which has a 55.49 per cent stake in the airline.

SIA’s system-wide passenger load factor improved to 80.9 per cent in September, up 4 per cent year-on-year and 2.6 per cent higher month-on-month, but this was mainly attributed to a combination of capacity cuts and promotional fares.

Premium passenger numbers remained fragile, with corporate flying being held back by a very modest rise in cross-border business activities.

During the month, OSK said the overall number of passengers carried by SIA dipped 10 per cent over the same month last year to 1.4 million.

The airline is monitoring traffic movements and making the appropriate adjustments to match capacity to forward demand.
"We have witnessed a constant cargo load factor (CLF) since SIA implemented aggressive capacity management," said OSK.

In September, system-wide cargo capacity fell 17.3 per cent y-o-y while cargo traffic (freight tonne km) declined by 14.5 per cent, which translates into 63.2 per cent in CLF.

"While economies across the globe begin to see signs of recovery, which is positive to cargo numbers, we are conservative on the possibility of the division returning to the black in FY10," OSK said.

"The latest operating statistics reaffirm our view that worst may be over for SIA, but we continue to think the gestation period for premium airlines like SIA make take longer to return to their days of glory," said OSK.

Recent news reports quoting SIA’s CEO as saying there were “double digit” decline in yields in the quarter ended September prompt us to cut our revenue passenger km (RPK) estimates from 11 to 10.5 cents for FY10 but by a mere 0.1 cent for FY11.

"We believe that downtrading from business to economy class travel and from premium class to low cost carriers (LCCs) may persist."

"However, as the carrier has decided to stick to its plan to reduce capacity by 11 per cent through March 2010 to fill up seats, we are tuning up our systemwide load assumption by 1.5 percent for FY10 to 76 per cent and one percent for FY11 to 77.5 percent," it said.

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Singapore Airlines B777-212ER

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Singapore Airlines A380


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Singapore Airlines

copyright: Koresh

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SIA plane scrapes Air China jet at Beijing airport
Sun, Aug 1 2010

Pilot error was likely to be behind the incident, Chinese reports said.



BEIJING - Two aircraft collided at Beijing’s international airport on Saturday, China’s state media reported.

The wing of a taxiing Singapore Airlines (SIA) Boeing 777 hit the tail of a stationary Air China Boeing 737-800, Xinhua said.
Click here to find out more!

Pilot error was likely to be behind the incident, in which no one was hurt, said the report, citing an official from China’s Civil Aviation Administration.

According to The Straits Times, 248 passengers were onboard the Singapore-bound SQ803 when the minor collision occurred around 9am Saturday. The passengers were told to disembark two hours later and transferred to hotels because the flight had to be cancelled.

"Engineers were inspecting the plane to see if the aircraft could be fixed immediately," an airline spokesman was quoted as saying in the report.

Beijing’s airport, which was shrouded in fog at the time of the incident, is home to one of the world’s largest terminals, the 98-hectare (245-acre) Terminal Three, designed by Norman Foster and opened in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008.


http://www.relax.com.sg/relax/news/423636/SIA_plane_scrapes_Air_China_jet_at_Beijing_airport.html

I'm always proud of them!

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nice pics of singapore airlines

I love Singapore Airlines. Dont know why it didnt win Skytrax Airline of the Year award....

^^ It's okay, it's the most awarded airline and it cannot possibly win all awards! haha. My favourite airline too.

^^True! They cant keep on giving the award to the same airline. Just happy that Singapore Changi Airport won the Airport of the Year award this year.:)

Singapore Airlines A380
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Hi Mate
The singapore Airlines is one of the few reputed companies world wide across all business sectors having good reputation with good management policies. It's a has been along journey for then starting from single plane to hundreds of fleet.The singapore Airlines according to has grown to this extent world wide due to it's customer satisfaction and no air crashes.: cheers:

Hi Mate
The singapore Airlines is one of the few reputed companies world wide across all business sectors having good reputation with good management policies. It's a has been along journey for then starting from single plane to hundreds of fleet.The singapore Airlines according to has grown to this extent world wide due to it's customer satisfaction and no air crashes.: cheers:

NO AIR CRASHES? remember the SQ006 incident?

NO AIR CRASHES? remember the SQ006 incident?

That was Singapore Airlines first accident. It occured during Typhoon Xangsane in Taiwan.

Singapore Airlines, A380

98cGfLUskis

SIA Network Expands to Sixth Continent With First South American Destination

SINGAPORE, Sept. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Singapore Airlines will add a sixth continent to its route network in March 2011 with the launch of thrice-weekly flights between Singapore and the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo, via Barcelona in Spain.

Sao Paulo will be the Airline's first South American destination. A dynamic metropolis, Brazil's largest city is an arts and entertainment centre as well as an influential player in the areas of commerce and finance within the region.

Flights will operate between Barcelona and Sao Paulo's Guarulhos International Airport under codeshare arrangements with Star Alliance partner Spanair. The codeshare will help facilitate travel from Spanair's network to Sao Paulo through its Barcelona hub. SIA already adds its code to Spanair domestic flights between Barcelona and Bilbao, Madrid and Palma Mallorca.

"We are very excited about this new service which will help boost ties between Singapore and Brazil and pave the way for enhanced trade, tourism and travel links between Asia and South America. It will also provide a direct link between Barcelona and Sao Paulo," said Mr Bey Soo Khiang, Singapore Airlines' Senior Executive Vice President Marketing & Corporate Services.

"Singapore Airlines has been eyeing opportunities in the fast-growing South American market for some time. We are pleased to be able to add a sixth continent to our route network and be the only airline offering direct flights between Southeast Asia and Brazil."

Singapore Airlines currently flies daily between Singapore and Barcelona via Milan in Italy. With the new service, three of the flights will operate non-stop between Singapore and Barcelona while four will continue to operate on a Singapore-Milan-Barcelona routing. To ensure that both Barcelona and Milan will continue to be served daily, thrice-weekly non-stop Singapore-Milan services will be introduced.

Details of flight times for the new Singapore-Barcelona-Sao Paulo service will be announced at a later date.

Singapore, welcome to São Paulo, Brazil!

What plane will they use on this route??

What plane will they use on this route??

777-300ER

Posted this on the A380 forum as well!!

Interior of Singapore Airlines A380:

SUITES CLASS
http://images.smh.com.au/2009/03/25/432988/Singaporeturndownservice-600x400.jpg

http://images.smh.com.au/2009/03/25/432979/SingaporeA380Suites-600x400.jpg

http://images.smh.com.au/2009/03/25/432987/SingaporeCabinExt-600x400.jpg

BUSINESS CLASS
http://images.smh.com.au/2009/03/25/432981/Singapore-A380-Business-4-600x400.jpg

http://images.smh.com.au/2009/03/25/432976/Singapore%20Airlines%20A380%20Business%20Class%20Service-600x400.jpg

http://images.smh.com.au/2009/03/25/432978/SingaporeA380BusinessClass-600x400.jpg

http://images.smh.com.au/2009/03/25/432975/Singapore%20Airlines%20A380%20Business%20Class%20Dining-600x400.jpg

ECONOMY CLASS
http://images.smh.com.au/2009/03/25/432983/Singapore-A380-Economy-2.jpg-600x400.jpg

http://images.smh.com.au/2009/03/25/432984/Singapore-A380-Economy.jpg-600x400.jpg

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/101004/world/india_russia_singapore_airline_bomb_scare_1

Bomb scare forces Singapore Airlines plane to land

KOLKATA, India (AFP) - A Singapore Airlines plane flying from Moscow to Singapore had to make an emergency landing in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata after a bomb scare, an airport official has told AFP.

The plane, carrying 265 people, was denied permission to land in the Indian capital New Delhi because of heightened security for the opening of the Commonwealth Games on Sunday.

"The pilot changed course of the plane after a bomb alert from Moscow police," Kolkata airport director R. Srinivasan said.

"The pilot immediately informed New Delhi airport about the alert, but was denied permission to land because of high security and restrictions for the opening of the Commonwealth Games in the capital."

The plane was granted permission to land at Kolkata airport, where it touched down shortly before midnight.

The passengers have been offloaded and security forces are searching the aircraft and baggage, Srinivasan said.

SQ068 SIN0135 – 0915BCN1025 – 1635GRU 77W 1--4-6-
SQ067 GRU2200 – 1335+1BCN1445+1 – 0935+2SIN 77W 1--4-6-

from march 11, 2011 with 777-300ER.

SQ068 SIN0135 – 0915BCN1025 – 1635GRU 77W 1--4-6-
SQ067 GRU2200 – 1335+1BCN1445+1 – 0935+2SIN 77W 1--4-6-

from march 11, 2011 with 777-300ER.

Where u got this news?

in the brazilian forum or the latin forum, can't remember. Someone has probably got it on the brazilian government website.

Where u got this news?

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=842904&page=45

Singapore Airlines launches in-flight calls, Internet with reseller
Services set to start in the first half of 2011, with phone calls, email, text messages and Internet during flights

Singapore Airlines is working with airline tech reseller, OnAir, to launch phone calls, messaging and in-flight wireless Internet services from the first half of 2011.

According to a statement released by the airline, its Airbus A380, Airbus A340-500 and Boeing 777-300ER aircraft flying from Australia and the rest of the world will be connected via satellites to phone services and wireless networks.

GSM-enabled phones and smartphone devices like Blackberries will be able to send and receive calls, text messages and emails during flights. While calls will be billed as a global roaming service, Internet packages will need to be bought from the airline.

OnAir is a jointly-owned company split between Airbus and in-flight IT provider, SITA. Its CEO, Ian Dawkins, claimed the move would help make in-flight services mainstream.

“It sends a strong signal to the industry that inflight passenger communications has come of age – and is a must-have for airlines looking to remain competitive in the future,” he said in a statement.

Singapore Airlines is claiming to be the first Asian airline to offer a complete suite of in-flight connectivity services. Australian carrier, Qantas, provides GPRS-based Internet for smartphones using small base stations on domestic flights. V Australia is planning to offer SMS and Internet services through rival tech firm, AeroMobile.

Prices for the Singapore Airlines services have not been released.

source:http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/363260/singapore_airlines_launches_in-flight_calls_internet_reseller/?rid=-100

Flight 3 hours in air despite bomb alert
TNN, Oct 5, 2010, 02.34am IST

KOLKATA: A Singapore Airlines flight with 225 passengers and 39 crew on board was forced to remain airborne for three hours after the captain was alerted of a bomb threat on Sunday evening.

The pilot of flight SQ 61, Johny Alberto, was somewhere over Amritsar when he received the LASP (land as soon as possible) message from Moscow air traffic control. His first option was to touch down at Delhi, the nearest airport for the wide-bodied Boeing 777-300 ER. But as the Commonwealth Games (CWG) opening ceremony was in progress, permission was denied and the aircraft directed to Kolkata nearly three hours away.

For the veteran commander and experienced cockpit crew who had made many long-haul flights across the globe, the 2 hour 45 minute journey to Kolkata seemed the longest of their lives. When the plane finally landed in Kolkata at 11.43 pm, Alberto heaved a sigh of relief. All along, the only thought that was haunting him was "what if...".

"Had there been a bomb on board the plane and had it exploded before reaching Kolkata, the authorities in Delhi would have had a lot to answer for. Though a Notice To Airmen (NOTAM) had been issued in view of the high security and restrictions for the CWG opening ceremony, an emergency landing should have been allowed," said an experienced captain.

According to former director general of DGCA Kanu Gohain, an emergency situation like this requires the pilot to land as soon as possible at the nearest available airport at which a safe approach and landing is assured. "If the pilot received the alert at 9 pm and was around Amritsar, Delhi was close by. It was directed to Kolkata due to closure of Delhi airspace. Had the NOTAM not been there, Delhi was the obvious landing choice," he explained.

Veteran pilots felt the NOTAM, issued to ensure that there was no panic among foreign participants and delegates at CWG, could have been extremely embarrassing for the entire nation had a mishap occurred with flight SQ 61.

On Sunday, the flight on the Houston-Moscow-Singapore sector departed on its last leg on time. Shortly thereafter, the customs office at Moscow airport received a call that claimed there was a bomb on board the plane. The message was immediately relayed to the Singapore Airlines headquarters. The latter alerted the pilots over the AirCraft Analytical System ( ACAS) on the aircraft.

When the pilot sought permission from Kolkata ATC, it was granted after a consultation with DGCA. With less than two hours in hand, the airport went into a flurry of activity. Central Industrial Security Force and other agencies like the Bomb Detection & Disposal Squad (BDDS) were notified. A remote bay at the Madhyamgram-end was readied and Singapore Airlines officials called to the airport. "Singapore Airlines did not have a flight from Kolkata on Sunday and hence the officials had to scramble from their home once they got the news," said Kolkata airport director R Srinivasan.

As soon as the aircraft landed at 11.43 pm, it was guided to the isolation bay. Singapore Airlines staff, alongwith Air India personnel, then helped passengers deplane. They were taken to the transit lounge to rest while luggage and freight was removed from the aircraft. The BDDS team then searched the aircraft thoroughly before giving the all-clear sign after 4 am. "The call was a hoax. There was no bomb on board the plane," a security officer.

By then, it was time for scheduled morning flights to take off and the Military Liaison Unit permitted the Singapore Airlines flight to depart around 4 pm. With 12 hours to go, the passengers and crew checked into three hotels. The plane finally took off for Singapore at 5.36 pm with all the passengers and crew on board. The cargo was, however, retained at Kolkata for another 24 hours and will be transported in another plane later.

Incidentally, in August 2009, a bomb scare on a Melbourne-bound Singapore Airlines flight had rattled passengers. The flight, with 198 passengers and 20 crew, was alerted to a bomb threat received at a call centre in Mumbai after the plane had taken off from Singapore. The luggage was checked by the crew during the flight. After the plane landed safely in Melbourne, it was thoroughly searched but the alert turned out to be a hoax.

source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Flight-3-hours-in-air-despite-bomb-alert/articleshow/6686905.cms

SQ068 SIN0135 – 0915BCN1025 – 1635GRU 77W 1--4-6-
SQ067 GRU2200 – 1335+1BCN1445+1 – 0935+2SIN 77W 1--4-6-

from march 11, 2011 with 777-300ER.

Actualy, is 27 March instead of 11 March

From: airlineroute.net

Singapore Airlines launch Sao Paulo in S11; Milan/Barcelona changes

20101003 by jimyvr

Singapore Airlines from 27MAR11 will be expanding its presence to Sao Paulo in Brazil, becoming the 6th Asian carrier to offer service in all 6 continents (Air China, Emirates, Korean Air, Malaysia Airlines and QATAR Airways flies to all 6 continents).

From 27MAR11, it is operating 3 weekly Singapore – Barcelona – Sao Paulo with 777-300ER. With the launch, service to Barcelona and Milan Malpensa is being readjusted, in order to maintain Daily service.

The Star Alliance member is now accepting reservation at time this post goes to press (Monday Afternoon 04OCT10 Singapore time, same time when the schedule is loaded into the system). Schedule and adjustments as follows:

Singapore – Barcelona – Sao Paulo 3 weekly 777-300ER
SQ068 SIN0135 – 0915BCN1025 – 1635GRU 77W 146
SQ067 GRU2200 – 1335+1BCN1445+1 – 0935+2SIN 77W 146

Singapore – Milan Malpensa – Barcelona Service operates 4 weekly, where Barcelona will be kept as Daily flight
SQ378 SIN2315 – 0600+1MXP0700+1 – 0835+1BCN 77W x146
SQ377 BCN0955 – 1135MXP1245 – 0650+1SIN 77W x257

Singapore – Milan Malpensa 3 weekly terminator service, where Milan Malpensa also kept as Daily flight
SQ368 SIN0135 – 0820MXP 77W 146
SQ367 MXP1100 – 0505+1SIN 77W 146

Actualy, is 27 March instead of 11 March

From: airlineroute.net

Singapore Airlines launch Sao Paulo in S11; Milan/Barcelona changes

20101003 by jimyvr

Singapore Airlines from 27MAR11 will be expanding its presence to Sao Paulo in Brazil, becoming the 6th Asian carrier to offer service in all 6 continents (Air China, Emirates, Korean Air, Malaysia Airlines and QATAR Airways flies to all 6 continents).

From 27MAR11, it is operating 3 weekly Singapore – Barcelona – Sao Paulo with 777-300ER. With the launch, service to Barcelona and Milan Malpensa is being readjusted, in order to maintain Daily service.

The Star Alliance member is now accepting reservation at time this post goes to press (Monday Afternoon 04OCT10 Singapore time, same time when the schedule is loaded into the system). Schedule and adjustments as follows:

Singapore – Barcelona – Sao Paulo 3 weekly 777-300ER
SQ068 SIN0135 – 0915BCN1025 – 1635GRU 77W 146
SQ067 GRU2200 – 1335+1BCN1445+1 – 0935+2SIN 77W 146

Singapore – Milan Malpensa – Barcelona Service operates 4 weekly, where Barcelona will be kept as Daily flight
SQ378 SIN2315 – 0600+1MXP0700+1 – 0835+1BCN 77W x146
SQ377 BCN0955 – 1135MXP1245 – 0650+1SIN 77W x257

Singapore – Milan Malpensa 3 weekly terminator service, where Milan Malpensa also kept as Daily flight
SQ368 SIN0135 – 0820MXP 77W 146
SQ367 MXP1100 – 0505+1SIN 77W 146


Thanks!

source:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/cna/cgi-bin/search/search_7days.pl?status=&search=singapore%20airlines&id=1085274

SIA plane landed with damage to tyre in NY, no injuries
By : Timothy Ouyang
Date : 05 Oct 2010 2004 hrs (GMT + 8hrs)

SINGAPORE: A Singapore Airlines flight to New York on Monday landed with damage to one of the plane's tyres.

All 81 passengers on board the all-business class SQ22 flight disembarked at the terminal less than 20 minutes after touchdown.

No injuries were reported.

The Airbus A340-500 aircraft was on a direct flight from Singapore to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.

An SIA statement said that an initial inspection of the landing gear revealed that there was damage to a tyre on the left side, adding that its engineers were working on rectifications.

SIA has five A340-500 aircraft in its fleet.

The long-range, four-engined wide-body planes are used on SIA's non-stop flights from Singapore to Los Angeles and New York.

- CNA/ir

source:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/cna/cgi-bin/search/search_7days.pl?status=&search=singapore%20airlines&id=1085203

Diverted SIA plane arrives safely in Singapore
Date : 05 Oct 2010 1420 hrs (GMT + 8hrs)

SINGAPORE: A Singapore Airlines flight, heading from Moscow to Singapore but was diverted to Kolkata due to a security scare, has landed safely in Singapore.

SIA confirmed that flight SQ61 arrived at Changi Airport early Tuesday morning.

Public Affairs Vice-President Nicholas Ionides said the aircraft was carrying more than 220 passengers on board and all passengers received meals and accommodation in Kolkata.

Flight SQ61 was diverted to Kolkata on Monday morning due to a "security issue."

SIA has apologised for the inconvenience and sought the understanding of affected passengers that the airline would not compromise on safety and security.

According to some of the passengers on the flight, nobody panicked and everything went smoothly.

"Everyone was calm, cool, collected. They understood...The people at Singapore Airlines and the people at Calcutta (Kolkata) airport were fine. They did their best under [a] very tiring and critical situation," a passenger said.

-CNA/ac

What are your views on this article??
source:http://sg.yfittopostblog.com/2010/10/08/still-a-singapore-girl/

Still a Singapore Girl?
By Alicia Wong – October 8th, 2010

The move by Singapore Airlines (SIA) to hire Thai cabin crew has drawn mixed reactions.

While some are concerned the entry of more foreign stewardesses could impact the Singapore Girl identity and add communication barriers, others felt it could enhance the carrier’s service standards.

The Straits Times reported Friday that SIA conducted its first recruitment exercise in Thailand in September and is understood to target a recruitment of about 40 Thai crew.

The first Thai batch is expected to start flying by March 2011.

An SIA stewardess, who declined to be named, told Yahoo! Singapore said she “welcomes” working with a Thai counterpart.

“I’ve always been under the impression that SIA has been very protective of their national image so they must have put a lot of consideration into this move,” she said.

Yet, she felt the title “Singapore Girl” is becoming “more and more a point of contention”.

“It’s not my place to say if they should be called Singapore Girls because I don’t think it’s fair for me to judge, but it’s definitely something to think about,” she said.

She wondered if the decision to hire Thais were “cost-related”, or if SIA could be “headed in the direction of Emirates, to have a multi-national crew”.

Another local SIA air stewardess, however, felt foreign stewardesses joining their team would not dilute the Singapore Girl identity.

”The majority (of stewardesses) are still Singaporeans,” she said although she pointed out that passengers may have difficulty understanding the Thai accent.

Since SIA hires cabin crew from other countries, why not from Thailand, pointed out another veteran flight attendant, who’s been with SIA for over 15 years.

He said Thais can be “pretty charming people”, and while some may not speak English as well, there are those who can “speak really good English”.

He also felt a lack of interest among Singaporeans to take on this job could have contributed to the decision to hire from other countries.

Ms Pintira Thowatana, a Thai who travels to Singapore once every two to three months, felt the move would be “helpful for more senior Thai people who don’t speak English and find it difficult to communicate with non-Thai-speaking stewardesses”.

“Having a native Thai stewardesses will show SIA’s commitment to improve service for Thai people. It’s like how SIA has Japanese stewardesses on flights to-and-from Japan to cater to Japanese travellers,” said the 26-year-old manager.

The frequent flyer noted that most foreign airlines do have Thai stewardesses on flights, including short-haul flights.

Mr Alan Tan, president of the Singapore Airlines Staff Union, told ST the union approves of the national carrier’s latest policy to hire Thais.

“’First, it gives us a wider pool of people to select from, and from a service perspective, having crew of different nationalities also allows us to offer our customers a more personalised service,” he said.

Language and service requirements are the main factors that drive foreign recruitment.

SIA spokesman Nicholas Ionides said foreign cabin crew are hired to serve on flights to and from their countries of origin and other international routes. They also undergo the same training as locals.

According to ST, only about one in seven of SIA’s near-7,000 cabin crew are non-citizens or permanent residents — for now.

The hiring of foreign flight attendants is nothing new — Singapore Airlines currently hires air stewardesses from Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Korea, Japan, Taiwan and China — but it does beg the question if the term, Singapore Girl, still applies.

Why is it an issue? Because it’s safe to say that foreigners and locals alike have come to associate the Singapore Girl identity, and even the national carrier itself, as representative of the Lion City.

What do you think: Do you agree think that SQ flight attendants should still be called Singapore Girls?

Singapore Airlines Review(Economy Class)http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/travel/traveller-tips/flight-test-singapore-airlines-economy-class-20101007-16945.html

Flight test: Singapore Airlines economy class
October 11, 2010

Aircraft Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-300ER.

Route Melbourne to Singapore.

Class Economy, seat 38B.
Advertisement: Story continues below

Seat pitch and width 32 inches of legroom, 18.6 inches wide.

Seat configuration 3-3-3 for a total of 228 economy-class seats.

Luggage allowance One item of checked luggage up to 20 kilograms, one item of carry-on luggage up to seven kilograms.

Scheduled flight time Seven hours, 55 minutes.

On-time performance Favourable winds see us arrive 45 minutes early.

Lounge access SilverKris lounge at Melbourne Airport available to silver and gold KrisFlyer members.

Aircraft condition Singapore Airlines is gradually refitting the interiors of its fleet and this plane has new seats.

Comfort The new seats are designed to slide forward as they recline, preventing the back of the seat cramping the person behind you. But I find the footrest digs into my shins when folded up. I end up putting the footrest down and manoeuvring my legs around it to put them under the seat in front. The older seat design seems more comfortable on my connecting flight.

Console/entertainment The upgraded seats feature a larger, clearer seat-back screen with a good range of new and recent movies (in several languages) and TV shows. All seats have power points for mobile devices and laptops, plus USB ports.

Service The airline's reputation remains intact; cabin crew are a class act. By the time I reach my seat, I've been welcomed five times. While not particularly affable, the attendants are polite and highly efficient. A crew member arrives within 30 seconds after I hit the call button to get my tea cup.

Food and beverage About as good as you can get in economy class. An after-midnight departure time means a lighter evening meal is served, the chicken and leek pie is tasty. For breakfast I choose egg noodles with seafood and Asian greens.

Amenities Small kit contains socks, toothbrush and toothpaste. Pillow and blanket provided during flight.

Flight frequency Three times daily between Melbourne and Singapore; four times daily between Sydney and Singapore.

Online singaporeair.com.

I heard the news that IB also operate this flight on that day. (SQ vs IB in BCN) here is IB schedule:

BCN 0130 GRU 0800 L, J, S
GRU 1345 BCN 0535 L, J, S


Iberia takes another step to make Barcelona airport a major intercontinental hub


Iberia is growing in Barcelona with new transatlantic flights, the creation of an intercontinental hub at El Prat, networks for distributing traffic to the Americas, and a new maintenance hangar.
In the upcoming summer season the airline will operate direct flights from Barcelona to Miami and São Paulo.
Iberia will transform El Prat into a genuine hub for its flights between Europe and most of the Americas (the U.S., Mexico, Central America and the Southern Cone of South America). It will be fed chiefly by the Vueling network, which serves 16 destinations in Spain and nearly 30 more in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Both in Miami and São Paulo, Iberia has a major flight network for distributing traffic to most of the Americas: from Miami to other cities in the U.S., Mexico, and Central America; and from São Paulo to the rest of Brazil and the countries of the Southern Cone.
Iberia's new maintenance hangar, which opens today, is the only one in Barcelona capable of accommodating aircraft with more than 100 seats. The new installations will help drive the airport's development and invigorate Barcelona's industrial economy, while providing between 150 and 200 highly-skilled jobs.


Madrid, 18 of October of 2010

Iberia is growing in Barcelona. In the next summer season, the Spanish airline will operate direct transatlantic flights from the city to Miami and São Paulo. To bring traffic to these flights, Iberia is transforming El Prat airport into a genuine hub for flights by the Vueling and Iberia Regional /Air Nostrum .

In addition, for passengers on the new flights from Barcelona to Miami and São Paulo, Iberia has a thick web of connections to distribute this traffic throughout the Americas: from Miami to other U.S. and Central American cities via code shares with American Airlines; and from São Paulo to the rest of Brazil and cites of the southern cone of South American with the Gol company, under a new code share agreement that is now being negotiated, and with other airlines in the region.

Added to this is the new maintenance hangar in Barcelona that Iberia is opening today, which is the only one in Barcelona able to accommodate aircraft with more than 100 seats, and will deliver a strong impulse to the future development of the airport.

Direct Iberia Transatlantic Flights from Barcelona

Starting on March 28th, Iberia will offer direct flights from Barcelona to Miami and São Paulo. The company will operate three weekly flights to each of the two cities, using Airbus A340/300s, and scheduling the flights to ensure convenient connections.

Iberia expects many passengers on the new Barcelona-Miami and Barcelona-São Paulo route to be heading to or from other cities, and that the Barcelona airport will thus become another important hub for distributing passenger traffic to and from the Americas. El Prat airport is served by both Iberia Regional/Air Nostrum and by Vueling. Passengers on the Barcelona-São Paulo route can connect to or from Vueling's 43 destinations in Spain, Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. This airline, in which Iberia holds a minority share, is a "new generation" airline that offers customers the possibility of reserving connecting flights and booking their luggage through to the final destination.

The new flights will also enable Iberia to expand its cargo services in Barcelona, particularly with export shipments to the United States and Latin America.

From Barcelona to Miami, Other U.S. Cities, Mexico, and Central America

In the first year of operation, average seat occupancy on the new flight is expected to reach 80%, for a total of more than 50,000 passengers in 2011. Of these, 31% will be travelling beyond Miami, mainly to other U.S., Mexican, and Central American destinations. Iberia passengers in Miami can connect to flights to ten destinations in the U.S. and Puerto Rico (San Juan, Houston, Orlando, Dallas, Tampa, Key West, Norfolk, Pensacola, Ft. Myers and Tallahassee), and to another five cites in Mexico (Mexico City, Cancun) and Central America (Managua, Panama City, San Pedro Sula, Mexico City, and Cancún) thanks to the code sharing agreement between Iberia and American Airlines.

In addition, all flights over the North Atlantic are covered by the "joint business" agreement signed by Iberia, American Airlines and British Airways, whereby customers get cheaper fares, extra frequent flyer points, more travel options, and easier connections within the oneworld alliance to 663 destinations in 134 countries.

Cruise ship passengers are expected to constitute a significant proportion of the passengers on the Barcelona-Miami flights, since about 20% of Miami-Barcelona passengers board cruise ships in Barcelona.

From Barcelona to São Paulo and the Entire Southern Cone

Iberia also expects to fly some 50,000 passengers on the Barcelona-São Paulo route in 2011, with 83% seat occupancy. The Barcelona-São Paulo flights Iberia's gateway to Brazil, where passengers will find connections to another 13 cities (Bel Horizonte, Brasilia, Curitiba, Florianopolis, Fortaleza, Goiania, Iguaçu, Manaus, Natal, Porto Alegre, Recife, Salvador de Bahía, and Vitoria), thanks to the agreement, subject to the authorities approval, with the Gol airline. Iberia passengers can also connect in São Paulo to Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Bolivia.

A New Hangar for Barcelona

Iberia's other new strength in Barcelona is the maintenance hangar that is being opened today. It is the sole facility in Barcelona with a capacity to accommodate aircraft with more than 100 seats, and is expected to help drive future development of EL Prat airport.

It will also contribute to Barcelona's business and industrial development, as its production steadily increases. In the medium term it is expected to create between 150 and 200 direct highly-skilled jobs

IBERIA.COM (http://grupo.iberia.es/portal/site/grupoiberia/menuitem.5d6eca7f0ce74dddf54c0f10d21061ca/?id_noticia=feba61a347ebb210VgnVCM100000930216ac____)

From airlineroute.net

Singapore Airlines temporary suspends Sao Paulo Reservation as of 21OCT10

Singapore Airlines has temporary suspended reservations for new service to Sao Paulo, due to launch from 29MAR11.

On Amadeus FLIFO, 3 weekly Singapore – Barcelona – Sao Paulo flight, both SIN GRU and BCN GRU sector are now displaying “NO LOCAL TRAFFIC RIGHTS”, and in SQ’s inventory display, SIN GRU and BCN GRU sector is removed from the system.

It is expected that reservation will be open once again, either pending on SQ’s internal system adjustment or traffic rights permission.

singapore to sao paulo via spanair? i've always wanted to go to brazil, but having just checked out spanair's current seat offerings, i dont think i'd like to put myself through such torture for the second half of the journey... emirates looks like a better option.

singapore to sao paulo via spanair? i've always wanted to go to brazil, but having just checked out spanair's current seat offerings, i dont think i'd like to put myself through such torture for the second half of the journey... emirates looks like a better option.

SQ operating the route, spanair codeshare.

From airlineroute.net (http://airlineroute.net/2010/10/22/sq-gru-22oct10update/)

Singapore Airlines resumes Sao Paulo reservation as of 22OCT10

As of 22OCT10 1100GMT/1800 Singapore Time, Singapore Airlines has reopened reservation on its Singapore – Barcelona – Sao Paulo NEW service, due to launch 28MAR11.

Per SQ’s inventory display, flight is now showing available for reservation on all class of service, despite Amadeus FLIFO still displays “No Local Traffic Rights”.

source:http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1010/S00749/singapore-airlines-appoints-new-general-manager.htm

Singapore Airlines Appoints New General Manager
Tuesday, 26 October 2010, 12:07 pm
Press Release: Singapore Airlines

Singapore Airlines Appoints New General Manager

Singapore Airlines has appointed James Lim as General Manager New Zealand. He was most recently based in the airline’s Copenhagen office.

James started his career with the airline in 2001 in sales. He was subsequently appointed to the Head Office Market Communication and Development Department, the West Asia Regional Office and then posted to the Lahore station before being sent to Copenhagen.

He replaces Looi Tein Po who has been appointed as General Manager South Africa for the airline.

James is charged with leading Singapore Airlines initiatives together with New Zealand businesses and organisations to facilitate, promote and enhance travel and trade between New Zealand and Singapore, and beyond Singapore to other fast-growing Asian markets.

“I’m one hundred percent excited about working and living in such a wonderful country,” says Mr Lim. “New Zealand is a very special place for me personally as my wife and I spent two weeks in the beautiful South Island on our honeymoon.”

“New Zealand is an important market for Singapore Airlines,” says Mr Lim. “We now operate 17 flights each week out of New Zealand, 12 from Auckland and five from Christchurch.”

“New Zealand has huge tourism potential with its scenic natural beauty. We have partnered with Tourism New Zealand to promote the country in several of our key markets in Asia and Europe and there is a lot of interest in visiting New Zealand.

“Of course, Singapore continues to be an attractive destination for New Zealanders, and we have seen particular growth in the family and stopover holiday categories,” adds Mr Lim. “New integrated resorts such as Marina Bay Sands, theme park attractions and the world’s tallest observation wheel, the Singapore Flyover, all provide high quality attractions for holiday-makers – and for those who like their leisure louder, we have the Singapore Grand Prix, the world’s only Formula One night race.

“Singapore is also an excellent hub for New Zealand businesses to expand into fast-growing markets of China, India, and other Asian countries. Conversely, Singapore provides efficient links for people from these markets to come to New Zealand. Singapore Airlines, together with its regional airline Silkair, provides convenient connections to the major commercial cities in China and India.”

ENDS

Source:http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm/sidZAWYA20101101091733/Singapore%20Airlines%20links%20Abu%20Dhabi%20to%20Tokyo%27s%20Haneda%20International%20Airport

Singapore Airlines links Abu Dhabi to Tokyo's Haneda International Airport

The airline connects the Emirate of Abu Dhabi with two major airports in Tokyo, Narita & Haneda International Airports; operating four flights daily from Singapore.

1st November 2010 - Abu Dhabi, U.A.E: Starting from 31st October 2010, Singapore Airlines will connect Abu Dhabi International Airport via Singapore with Haneda International Airport, flying there twice a day from Singapore. The new route will complement the airline's already existing two daily flights to Narita International Airport, the second largest airport in Tokyo.

Singapore Airlines operates on a daily basis a state-of the-art A330-300 aircraft departing from Abu Dhabi at 1:15 am, local time, arriving to Singapore at 12:30 pm to depart to Haneda International Airport in Japan at 15:40, within the convenience of 3 hours, and arriving into Haneda at 23:05, local time. The aircraft will offer both business and economy class services.

Singapore Airline's frequency increase from two flights to four flights daily to Tokyo came as a response to the growing demand that the travel market is witnessing for more flights to and from Eastern Asia. Haneda International Airport boasts better domestic connections in Japan, and is situated in Tokyo's city centre.

Adding to this, Singapore Airlines will increase its flight frequencies to certain destinations. This will include daily non-stop flights to Los Angeles, Perth, Auckland and Christchurch. Singapore Airlines will add three new weekly flights to Osaka City in Japan, which will all be connected to Abu Dhabi, offering more destination choices for passengers transiting in Abu Dhabi International Airport.

Singapore Airlines started its operations from Abu Dhabi International Airport in March 2006, and it connects the emirate of Abu Dhabi with a list of leading international destinations such as Kuwait, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Bali, and Bangkok.

Source:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1091329/1/.html

SIA says no plans to ground its A380 fleet
By Timothy Ouyang | Posted: 04 November 2010 1537 hrs

SINGAPORE : Singapore Airlines (SIA) said it has no plans to ground its current fleet of 10 Airbus A380-800 aircraft.

This comes after the Australian flag carrier, Qantas, grounded its fleet of A380s after one of its aircraft was forced to land in Singapore with engine trouble on Thursday morning.

In its statement on Thursday, SIA said its operations are continuing as normal.

SIA added that it is premature at this point to speculate on the cause of the incident, and it is awaiting advice from its aircraft and engine manufacturers as the investigation progresses.

In 2007, SIA was the first airline to fly the A380 superjumbo, which can carry more than 500 passengers.

Four other airlines currently fly the aircraft, including, Qantas, Emirates, Air France and Lufthansa.

This is not the first time that an A380 aircraft has encountered engine problems.

In September 2009, a Singapore-bound SIA A380 flight was forced to turn around mid-flight and head back to Paris after one of its four engines failed.

Separately, Singapore Changi Airport said it will reopen its Runway 2 later Thursday.

Airport authorities had to close Runway 2 earlier to facilitate an emergency landing for Qantas Flight QF32 which experiencing engine problem.

The A380 Qantas flight, bound for Sydney, Australia, departed Singapore Changi Airport at 9:56 am local time.

For technical reasons, the aircraft turned back to Changi and landed safely at 11:46 am.

Changi Airport Group's Airport Emergency Service (AES) responded with six fire vehicles, in accordance with standard operating procedure for such incidents.

In response to the pilot's request, checks were conducted on the aircraft by AES.

Once the checks were completed, passengers and crew began disembarking from the aircraft at Runway 2.

Buses were arranged to ferry them to the airport terminal.

Disembarkation of all 469 passengers and crew on board was completed by 1:40 pm.

Changi Airport Group said flights have continued to take off and land at Runway 1 and operations at Changi have, otherwise, not been affected. - CNA /ls

Source:http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Singapore-Airlines-says-to-delay-all-A380-flights-AVGAZ?opendocument&src=rss

Qantas, Singapore Airlines ground all A380 flights
Published 11:15 PM, 4 Nov 2010 Last update 2:10 AM, 5 Nov 2010

Reuters

SINGAPORE - Qantas Airways and Singapore Airlines suspended flights of Airbus A380 superjumbos after engine failure forced an emergency landing in Singapore.

One passenger reported hearing a "massive bang" before the aircraft turned back and Indonesian TV showed pictures of debris on the ground near Batam airport which it said belonged to the Qantas plane.

Authorities said none of the 459 people on board the Qantas flight was hurt in the most serious incident for the world's largest passenger plane in three years of commercial flight.

"This was a significant engine failure," Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce told reporters in Sydney. "We are not underestimating the significance of this issue."

Qantas A380s use Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines. Rolls-Royce, whose shares were down more than 5 per cent, said it was working with authorities to understand the incident.

Planemaker Airbus said it will provide full technical assistance to Australian and French accident investigators.

One of the Airbus A380's four Rolls-Royce engines failed minutes after it had left Singapore for Sydney. Qantas chief executive Joyce said the plane was capable of flying on two engines.

Passengers said they saw parts of the engine fall off.

"I just heard this massive bang, like a shotgun going off," Tyler Wooster told Australia's Network Nine television. "Part of the skin had peeled off and you could see the foam underneath, pieces of broken wires sticking out."

The flight had begun in London.

Qantas, which operates six A380s, said it was grounding the aircraft pending a full investigation. Three A380 flights scheduled for Thursday, one originating in Sydney and two in Los Angeles, have been scrapped.

"We will suspend all A380 takeoffs until we are fully confident we have sufficient information about (flight) QF32," Mr Joyce told reporters.

Singapore Airlines said it will delay all flights on its A380 fleet pending precautionary checks recommended by Airbus and Rolls-Royce.

It was not immediately clear how many flights would be affected or for how long.

Investigation

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau was leading the investigation into the incident, Mr Joyce said. Passengers will stay in Singapore overnight and another plane will be dispatched for them on Friday morning.

Initial media reports said the plane had crashed after an explosion over the Indonesian island of Batam, near Singapore.

There have been no fatal incidents involving A380s since they were launched in 2005 as the greenest, quietest -- as well as the biggest -- jetliner. Shares in Airbus parent company EADS were down more than four per cent by 1245 GMT. Qantas shares were little changed.

Emirates [EMIRA.UL] said it was not considering suspending flights as its engines are from a different supplier. European airlines Air France and Lufthansa said they would continue to use the aircraft as normal.

The plane involved in the incident was built in 2008.

More than 200 orders have been placed for the A380, and 37 are in operation worldwide, according to Airbus. The plane cost $US17 billion to develop and has been dogged by production delays.

Qantas has never had a fatal accident. A mid-air explosion blew a minivan-size hole in the side of a Qantas 747-400 in 2008 which Australian air safety investigators blamed on an oxygen bottle.

One of the planes operated by Qantas burst two tyres this year when landing in Sydney, and in September 2009 an A380 was forced to turn around in mid-flight and return to Paris.

"This is probably the most serious incident involving the A380 since it began flying in commercial service," said aviation expert Tom Ballantyne, chief correspondent of Orient Aviation magazine. "There have been minor engine incidents before but nothing like this."

Singapore's Channel NewsAsia said the plane circled Singapore to burn fuel before making an emergency landing.

Former aircraft engineer Neil Shephard was on board.

"Four or five minutes after the flight (took off) there was a loud bang," he told Reuters. "The pilot said there was a technical issue with the plane and then we circled around for an hour to dump the fuel. During the landing, it was a bit wobbly."

Passengers were kept informed at all times, others who were on board said.

"It appears from the images of the plane that one of the engines has experienced a failure and it looks to be a fairly massive internal failure at that," said Peter Marosszeky at the University of New South Wales' aviation department.

"This failure has caused some of the engine ducting known as bypass ducting to depart from the engine. This type of incident has been seen previously but it was a long time ago and with much older planes than the A380."

A Reuters reporter said the plane was surrounded on the ground by emergency vehicles but there was no sign of any smoke or fire. One of the four nacelles -- structures that house the engines -- was missing and there appeared to be charring around that area of the plane.

Mr Rusdi, a witness in Batam, told Indonesia's Metro TV: "After an explosion, the plane was still moving but smoke was trailing from one of its wings."

Indonesian volcano Mount Merapi has erupted several times in the past week, spewing ash into the sky, but is several hundred miles from the A380's flightpath.

Thursday's incident came just days before Qantas was due to celebrate its 90th anniversary with a special open day in Brisbane.

Source:http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/UPDATE-1-Singapore-Airlines-clears-A380-fleet-for--AVW2E?opendocument&src=rss

Singapore Airlines clears A380 fleet for service
Published 11:26 AM, 5 Nov 2010 Last update 12:31 PM, 5 Nov 2010

Reuters

Singapore Airlines has resumed flying its A380 fleet, lifting a grounding order imposed after a Qantas A380 engine failed in-flight, forcing the aircraft to make an emergency landing.

The Qantas engine failure, which forced the plane back to Singapore airport on Thursday, marks the biggest incident with the A380, the world's largest passenger plane which has been in service only since 2007. Qantas' A380 fleet remains grounded.

Singapore airlines said it had checked and cleared its entire fleet of 11 Airbus A380 aircraft for service, said a spokeswoman for the airline in Australia.

All 11 of Singapore Airlines' A380 aircraft had been inspected and were found be safe, Susan Bredow told Reuters.

"They have all been inspected in accordance with the requirements of Airbus and Rolls-Royce. That was done overnight and everyone is satisfied the aircraft are serviceable and will be back on their scheduled routes as soon as possible," she said.

Qantas Airways on Thursday grounded its six A380 aircraft, pending the outcome of investigations into the reasons for the failure of one of its four Rolls-Royce engines which appeared to break apart during the Sydney-bound flight.

British engine maker Rolls-Royce issued a statement urging operators of the aircraft to perform safety checks on its Trent 900 engines.

One passenger aboard flight QF32 reported hearing a "massive bang". Qantas described it as a significant engine failure.

Photographs of the engine showed its outer, rear casing had been torn apart.

Passengers also reported that a second engine on the stricken Qantas aircraft failed to shut down once on the tarmac, sparking fears it could ignite spilling fuel from the failed engine.

Passengers said they were warned of the dangers of using any electronic device, as firefighters sprayed the aircraft which was leaking fuel from a hole in the wing.

"Despite all the lights being off, everything being turned off, there was a rumbling in the plane," passenger James Henderson told ABC Radio.

"And the captain then came out and said, 'Oh look we are sorry. As you can probably gather, one of our engines won't turn off but we are now pouring water into it to stop it'."

Passenger Christopher Lee said: "Obviously in the back of your mind you're concerned about a very hot engine next to leaking fuel. Obviously you're in a state of anxiety."

A Qantas spokesperson could not confirm the passengers' report of a second engine problem.

At 1205 AEDT, Qantas fell 0.69 per cent to $2.87, against a 1.11 per cent rise in the benchmark index.

Source:http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-11-09/singapore-air-boosts-second-half-capacity-5-as-travel-rebounds.html

Singapore Air Boosts Second-Half Capacity 5% as Travel Rebounds
November 09, 2010, 5:57 AM EST

By Chan Sue Ling

Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Singapore Airlines Ltd., the world’s second-largest carrier by market value, said it would increase capacity 5 percent in the fiscal second half as business travelers and holidaymakers reserve more flights.

“Advance bookings for the coming months indicate that demand is holding up,” the carrier said in the statement today. The airline also reported second-quarter profit of S$380 million ($296 million), surpassing analysts’ estimates.

The carrier has added flights to cities including Los Angeles, Tokyo and Seoul as global air travel recovers from the worst drop since World War II. Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. has also said it plans to return capacity to pre-crisis level, while Tokyo-based All Nippon Airways Co. is boosting overseas flights 15 percent in the year ending March.

“Singapore Air will continue to benefit from a global recovery and an increase in demand for leisure and business travel in the medium-to-long term,” said Steven Lim, who manages about $200 million at Daiwa SB Investments in Singapore. “The recovery in premium travel is still intact.”

The carrier’s capacity in the fiscal first half ended September was little changed from a year earlier. Airlines slashed flights last year as travel plunged during the global recession.

Capacity Increase

Asian airlines have so far limited capacity increases amid rising demand to preserve margins. Regional passenger numbers jumped 15 percent in the nine months ended September, while capacity rose 3.3 percent, according to the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, which represents 15 carriers including Singapore Air, Cathay Pacific and All Nippon.

Singapore Air’s passenger numbers were little changed at 4.17 million in the three months ended September, according to the statement. The carrier filled 80.3 percent of seats in the quarter, compared with 79.6 percent a year earlier.

Passenger yield, or the average price a traveler pays to fly one kilometer, increased to 11.8 Singapore cents from 9.8 cents a year earlier. The carrier expects yields to be “steady.”

Second-quarter revenue rose 18 percent to S$3.6 billion. Net income in the period surpassed the S$366 million average of seven analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. A year earlier, the airline had a loss of S$159 million.

The carrier gained 0.9 percent to S$16.32 at the close of trading today. The results were released after the market closed. Of the 23 analysts tracked by Bloomberg data in the past 12 months, 20 have a “buy” rating, two recommended that investors hold the stock, while one says “sell.”

The company is proposing to pay an interim dividend of 20 Singapore cents per share, according to the statement.

Singapore Air has resumed all services on its Airbus SAS A380 after conducting “precautionary technical checks” recommended by Rolls-Royce Group Plc and the planemaker following a Qantas Airways Ltd. engine blowout on Nov. 4. Singapore Air, the first to fly the double-decker plane, has 11 Airbus A380s.

Airlines in the Asia Pacific will probably post a combined profit of $5.2 billion this year, more than double an earlier forecast of $2.2 billion, the International Air Transport Association said in September.

--Editors: Dave McCombs, Neil Denslow.

Source:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/09/AR2010110907096.html

Singapore Airlines pulls 3 A380s due to engines
By KRISTEN GELINEAU
The Associated Press
Tuesday, November 9, 2010; 11:41 PM

SYDNEY -- Singapore Airlines pulled three of its A380 superjumbos from service Wednesday after tests uncovered problems with the planes' Rolls-Royce engines less than a week after an engine on a Qantas A380 exploded shortly after take-off.

Tests revealed oil stains in three engines on three of the airline's A380s, Singapore Airlines said in a statement. The planes, in Melbourne, Sydney and London, will be flown to Singapore, where they'll be fitted with new engines, the airline said.

"We apologise to our customers for flight disruptions that may result and we seek their understanding," airline spokesman Nicholas Ionides said in a statement.

Last week, Qantas grounded its fleet of A380s - the world's newest and largest airliner - after one of the aircraft's Rolls-Royce engines burst during a flight from Singapore to Sydney. The explosion showered debris over Indonesia's Batam island. The plane, carrying 466 people, made a safe emergency landing in Singapore.

On Monday, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said tests had uncovered oil leaks in the turbine area of three engines on three different A380s. All six of the Australian airline's A380s remained grounded Wednesday.

London-based Rolls-Royce, an aerospace, power systems and defense company that is separate from the manufacturer of Rolls-Royce cars, had recommended a series of checks for the Trent 900 engines that are used in the A380s operated by Qantas, Singapore Airlines and Germany's Lufthansa.

Singapore Airlines grounded its entire fleet of 11 A380s following last Thursday's engine explosion on Qantas. After initial checks, Singapore returned those to service on Friday. However, on Wednesday, based on fresh analysis of the tests, Singapore took three of its A380s out of service again, due to oil stain results.

Singapore's eight other A380s, also flying with Trent 900 engines, remain in service.

Bryony Duncan-Smith, a Sydney-based spokeswoman for Singapore Airlines, said she did not know whether the oil staining found in the Singapore engines was similar to the oil leaks found on the Qantas planes.

The affected engines will all be replaced with Trent 900s, Duncan-Smith said. The airline does not know how long that will take, she said.

Rolls-Royce did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment Wednesday. On Monday, it issued a statement saying it had made progress in understanding what caused the Qantas engine to burst, but offered no details on what that cause might be.

Joyce said Monday that Qantas was focusing its investigation on the oil leaks, which he said were abnormal and should not be occurring on new engines.

Singapore said the engine changes don't affect its eight other A380s at this point.

The Qantas and Singapore incidents are not the first problems Rolls-Royce have faced with its engines. In September 2009, a Singapore Airlines A380 was forced to return to Paris mid-flight after an engine malfunction. Last August, a Lufthansa crew shut down one of its engines as a precaution before landing in Frankfurt after receiving confusing information on a cockpit indicator.

On Tuesday, the European Aviation Safety Agency said it was closely monitoring the probe into the Qantas incident. The agency issued orders twice this year advising airlines about extra inspections or repairs needed for the Trent 900s.

A380s flown by Emirates and Air France are instead kitted out by the Engine Alliance, a 50/50 joint venture between GE Aircraft Engines and Pratt & Whitney.

Source:http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20101109/tts-eu-competition-aviation-transport-fi-c1b2fc3.html

EU fines 11 airlines 800 million euros for air cargo cartel
AFP - Wednesday, November 10

BRUSSELS (AFP) - – Europe's competition watchdog hit 11 airlines with nearly 800 million euros in fines Tuesday for running a global cargo cartel that included Air France-KLM, British Airways and Japan Airlines.

"It is deplorable that so many major airlines coordinated their pricing to the detriment of European businesses and European consumers," said European competition commissioner Joaquin Almunia.

The fines, totalling 799.4 million euros (1.1 billion dollars), were slapped on airlines that span the globe, from Air Canada and LAN Chile in the Americas to Cathay Pacific Airways and Singapore Airlines in Asia and Qantas in Australia.

The 11 cargo carriers coordinated their action on surcharges for fuel and security without discounts over a six-year period, between December 1999 and February 2006, the European Commission said.

The cartel covered flights from, to and within the European Economic Area.

The Air France-KLM group was hit with the biggest fine, 310 million euros, of which 183 million euros was for Air France and 127 million euros for KLM. Martinair, which is owned by Air France, was fined 29.5 million euros.

Air France-KLM said it plans to appeal the fine.

"The group will file an appeal against the decision in the EU General Court," it said in statement.

Elsewhere in Europe, British Airways was ordered to pay 104 million euros, Scandinavia's SAS group was fined 70.2 million euros and Luxembourg's Cargolux will have to pay 79.9 million euros.

In Asia, Singapore Airlines was fined 74.8 million euros, Cathay was hit with 57.1 million euros and Japan Airlines will pay 35.7 million euros.

Air Canada must pay 21 million euros while Qantas and LAN Chile got the smallest fines, 8.9 million and 8.2 million euros, respectively.

Five airlines applied for a reduction in the fine, claiming they were unable to pay it, but the commission said none of them met the conditions.

Lufthansa and its subsidiary Swiss International Air Lines escaped a fine under the commission's leniency programme for being the first to provide information about the cartel.

The commission said it dropped charges against another 11 carriers and one consultancy firm which it did not name.

The cartel initially began with contacts between airlines to ensure that worldwide air freight carriers imposed a "flat rate surchage per kilo for all shipments," the commission said.

The cooperation expanded with the introduction of a security surcharge. The companies refused to pay a commission on such surcharges to their clients, the regulator said.

"By refusing to pay a commission, the airlines ensured that surcharges did not become subject to competition through the granting of discounts to customers," the commission said.

SAS also said it would appeal the fine.

"We adamantly maintain that these isolated incidents do not mean that SAS Cargo has been involved in a global cartel," the airline's chief legal officer, Mats Loennkvist, said in a statement.

"We are highly disappointed and strongly contest the considerable level of the fines, which we believe to be disproportionate to SAS Cargos actions."

Source:http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=629342&publicationSubCategoryId=108

Despite travel warnings: SilkAir load factor remains upbeat
By Joefel Ortega Banzon (The Freeman) Updated November 12, 2010 12:00 AM

CEBU, Philippines – Amidst recent advisories issued against travel to the Philippines
, particularly in the southern part of the country, it is such a relief that international airlines still enjoy upbeat passenger traffic to this date.

SilkAir Philippines Manager Ajish Henry Morris said "SilkAir load factors on our Cebu and Davao flights have been reasonably healthy, supported by sales from Philippines, Singapore and traffic connecting via the Singapore hub."

Morris added that SilkAir have not seen an erosion of forward loads arising from the travel advisories issued by some countries, stressing that "our passenger loads remain strong for the coming months."

Earlier this month, several foreign nations including the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, and France warned their nationals working or living in the Philippines to be cautious due to imminent terror threats in the country.

The travel warnings were feared to cause a negative impact towards the country's tourism industry.

Morris for his part said the travel advisories failed to generate such drastic adverse effects to the airline industry because the warnings were more generic rather than specific.

The usual peak periods for SilkAir are from December to January, then from March to April.

As testament to the airline company's confidence in the country, Morris said SilkAir is constantly on the lookout for new opportunities to expand their business in more destinations.

"We are closely monitoring the tourism developments in certain destinations that have the potential to sustain international flights. For the time being, our focus is on growing our business in Visayas and Mindanao, through our flights to Cebu and Davao," he said.

SilkAir operates the narrow body fleet of its parent airline, Singapore Airlines Group. Its passenger profile on Philippine flights is composed of business travelers, VFR market segment that includes visiting friends and relatives as well as overseas based Filipinos and family members, and the leisure travelers including tourists, backpackers, and adventurers.

It is a full service premium regional airline that first took the skies in 1989 as Tradewinds The Airline, and later became known as SilkAir in 1992.

SilkAir flies from its Singapore hub to more than 400 flights weekly to 33 destinations across 11 countries including Phnom Penh and Siem Reap in Cambodia, Chengdu, Chongqing, Kunming,Shenzhen, and Xiamen in China, Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Kochi, and Thiruvananthapuram in India, Balikpapan, Lombok, Manado, Medan, Palembang, Solo, and Surabaya in Indonesia, Kuching, Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur, Langkawi, and Penang in Malaysia, Yangon in Myanmar, Kathmandu in Nepal, Cebu and Davao in the Philippines, Chiang Mai and Phuket in Thailand, and Da Nang in Vietnam. (FREEMAN)

Source:http://goodnewspilipinas.com/?p=13329

Singapore Airlines unit to expand facility in Clark
Posted on November 14th, 2010 under Biz Progress

The engineering unit of Singapore Airlines is set to expand its aircraft maintenance facility at the Clark Civil Aviation Complex this month, giving a fresh vote of confidence for the country, in general, and for prospects of the former US base, in particular.

According to the Clark International Airport Corp., aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) firm SIA Engineering Co. (SIAEC) will invest close to P1 billion to put up a second hangar at the facility.

The expansion program will allow SIAEC to service the carrier’s newest Boeing 747 and 777 aircraft. It will also generate an estimated 300 new jobs, while more allied industries may emerge as a result of the investment in the 2,367-hectare Clark air hub.

In a statement Thursday, CIAC president and CEO Victor Jose Luciano revealed that the construction of the second hangar will start sometime this month.

“SIAEC will be building a bigger hangar to accommodate wide-bodied aircraft such as the Boeing 747 and 777,” he said.

In November 2008, SIAEC, together with joint venture partner Cebu Pacific Air, began construction of the first hangar for the Airbus A320 and A319 aircraft in Clark. This, in turn, paved the way for the further development of the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA).

The first hangar cost an estimated P800 million. It started operations in July 2009, providing maintenance service for the Airbus A320 aircraft of various foreign and local airlines.

“Starting this month, we will see the development of the second, much larger hangar in Clark,” Luciano said. “This will generate no less than 300 direct jobs and about 200 indirect jobs for our people in Central and Northern Luzon.”

The SIAEC facility is expected to start operations by the end of 2012.

Singapore-based SIAEC is an internationally renowned aircraft MRO company providing total maintenance solutions to wide-bodied aircraft in the service of more than 85 international airlines worldwide. It has 24 joint ventures and subsidiaries across nine countries that form the SIAEC Group.

Its services include airframe, component, engine, and aircraft conversions and modifications.

SIAEC also provides support services at the Changi International Airport in Singapore, as well as line maintenance support services in Australia, the United States, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Source:http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/two-singapore-airlines-a380s-back-in-air-20101115-17tvy.html

Two Singapore Airlines A380s back in air
November 15, 2010 - 3:09PM

AFP

Singapore Airlines (SIA) has resumed flying two of three grounded Airbus A380s after replacing Rolls-Royce engines found to have oil stains, a spokesman for the carrier said on Monday.

"Over the weekend, two were put back into service," the spokesman said, adding that checks were still being conducted on the third plane.

One engine in each of the grounded SIA A380s was found to have oil stains and all three engines were replaced as a precaution.
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The airline was the launch customer of the A380 and now has 11 of the massive aircraft in service, with another eight on order.

The three SIA aircraft were grounded after a Qantas A380 using similar Rolls Royce Trent 900 engines was forced to make an emergency landing in Singapore on November 4 after one of the engines blew out.

Qantas has grounded its entire fleet of six A380s and not announced when they will fly again.

Rolls-Royce said last week that the failure of a "specific component in the turbine area of the engine" sparked the fire which caused the mid-air blowout on the Qantas flight shortly after it took off for Sydney.

Source:http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-11-15/qantas-singapore-airlines-lufthansa-may-need-a380-engine-fix.html

Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa May Need A380 Engine Fix
November 15, 2010, 10:38 PM EST
By Chan Sue Ling

Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Qantas Airways Ltd., Singapore Airlines Ltd. and Deutsche Lufthansa AG may need to replace one component in each of the engines powering their Airbus SAS A380 fleets, Rolls-Royce Group Plc said.

Rolls-Royce, the world’s second-largest maker of engines, is working with customers to replace the part as inspections of its Trent 900 engines continue, the London-based company said in an e-mail today. The engine maker has identified the component that led to the blowout of a turbine on a Qantas A380 flight earlier this month and has said the incident is isolated to the Trent 900 engine, designed specifically for the A380.

“Over a period of time, it is likely we will replace the relevant module on all engines,” Rolls-Royce said. “We seek to minimize disruptions and this program will enable our customers progressively to bring the whole fleet back into service.”

One of the four engines on a Qantas A380 blew up shortly after takeoff from Singapore on Nov. 4, forcing an emergency landing and damaging a wing. The blast prompted Qantas to ground its fleet of A380s, while two other carriers switched engines and the European Aviation Safety Agency ordered mandatory checks of Trent 900 engines at regular intervals.

Qantas, Australia’s largest airline, kept its fleet of six A380s grounded for the 13th day as the Sydney-based carrier continued inspections of the engines and probed potential oil leaks found in three engines.

Pulled From Service

Qantas fell 2.5 percent to A$2.72 as of 1:44 p.m. in Sydney trading, while Singapore Air dropped 0.1 percent in Singapore. Rolls-Royce declined 2.3 percent in London yesterday, when Lufthansa gained 0.5 percent in Frankfurt.

Singapore Air pulled three A380s out of service last week to change one engine on each aircraft. The last of three planes will be back in service today, Nicholas Ionides, a spokesman for the airline, said by phone. The carrier has declined to “speak definitively” on the number of engines that may require modification work.

Qantas has six of the double-decker A380s in its fleet, while Singapore Air, the first to fly the superjumbo commercially, has 11. Lufthansa operates three A380s and is scheduled to take delivery of its fourth this week, according to Frank Puttmann, the carrier’s Singapore-based spokesman.

“We are working with Rolls-Royce very closely, and the authorities,” Puttmann said by phone today. “So far, we have no findings on our engines, so all our A380s are on schedule.”

--Editors: Terje Langeland, Suresh Seshadri.

Source:http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_603937.html

Nov 16, 2010
SIA senior exec steps down
By Hannah Koh

SINGAPORE Airlines' (SIA) senior executive vice-president for Marketing & Corporate Services will be stepping down next year.

Mr Bey Soo Khiang will leave SIA on Feb 28 after more than 10 years of service.

Following a 26-year career with the Singapore Armed Forces, Mr Bey joined SIA in 2000 as executive vice-president, Technical. He moved on to Operations and Planning areas in 2004 before assuming his current position earlier this year.

'He has made significant contributions towards the development of the company. All of us in SIA will miss him,' said SIA Chairman Stephen Lee.

Said Mr Bey: 'The time is right for me to move on. I will be leaving knowing that the Airline remains in good hands.'

Plans for new leadership of these divisions are still being finalised.

Source:http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_604680.html

Nov 18, 2010
SIA to constantly inspect A380s

SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) said on Thursday that it will constantly inspect Rolls-Royce engines powering its Airbus A380 superjumbos and replace them if advised to do so by the manufacturers.

SIA was reacting to a report that Rolls-Royce may replace up to 40 Trent 900 engines on A380s flown by Australia's Qantas, SIA and Germany's Lufthansa after a mid-air Qantas explosion this month triggered safety concerns.

An A380 operated by Qantas with 466 people aboard turned back and made a dramatic emergency landing in Singapore on November 4 after an explosion ripped through one of the plane's four Trent 900 engines shortly after takeoff.

The blast sparked a fire in the engine and sent metal debris falling on to a nearby Indonesian city.

'We remain in very close contact with both Rolls-Royce and Airbus, and all checks that we have carried out to date have been in full compliance with their recommendations and instructions,' said SIA spokesman Nicholas Ionides.

He said the carrier was also continuing with inspections of all its Trent 900 engines in compliance with an 'airworthiness directive' from the European Aviation Safety Agency. -- AFP

A380 update on Singapore Airlines website:http://www.singaporeair.com/saa/Util/showPopup.jspx?method=window&refNo=5522859&windowUrl=/saa/en_UK/Util/BreakingNewsPopup.jsp?msgId=1

A380 UPDATES

16 November 2010

Singapore Airlines will be carrying out ongoing precautionary inspections on its Airbus A380 fleet, in full compliance with a directive from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and guidance from engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce.

These inspections are not expected to affect flight timings. Schedules are due to remain as normal.

In order to maintain a normal schedule and minimise disruptions to our customers, we will be deploying Boeing 747-400s and Boeing 777s, where necessary, in place of A380s on certain flights to/ from Sydney and Melbourne.

Details are as follows (ALL TIMES LISTED ARE LOCAL):

17 - 24 November 2010

* SQ 221, Singapore - Sydney, scheduled to depart 2035hrs, will be operated by a B747-400 aircraft.

* SQ 227, Singapore - Melbourne, scheduled to depart 2100hrs, will be operated by a B777-300 aircraft.



18 - 25 November 2010

* SQ 212, Sydney - Singapore, scheduled to depart 0915hrs, will be operated by a B747-400 aircraft.

* SQ 222, Sydney - Singapore, scheduled to depart 1630hrs, will be operated by a B777-300 aircraft.

* SQ231, Singapore - Sydney, scheduled to depart 0035hrs, will be operated by a B777-300 aircraft.

* SQ 238, Melbourne - Singapore, scheduled to depart 1110hrs, will be operated by a B777-300 aircraft.



22 November 2010

* SQ 241, Singapore – Sydney, scheduled to depart 0700hrs, will be operated by a B777-300 aircraft.

* SQ 242, Sydney – Singapore, scheduled to depart 1850hrs, will be operated by a B777-300 aircraft.



24 November 2010

* SQ 211, Singapore – Sydney, scheduled to depart 0900hrs, will be operated by a B777-300 aircraft.



25 November 2010

* SQ 232, Sydney – Singapore, scheduled to depart 1240hrs, will be operated by a B777-300 aircraft.

* SQ 241, Singapore – Sydney, scheduled to depart 0700hrs, will be operated by a B777-300 aircraft.

* SQ 242, Sydney – Singapore, scheduled to depart 1850hrs, will be operated by a B777-300 aircraft.



Singapore Airlines will also mount the following supplementary flights to both Melbourne and Sydney:

19 - 20 November 2010

* SQ265, Singapore - Melbourne - Sydney - Singapore, is scheduled to depart Singapore at 2325hrs and arrive in Melbourne on 0950hrs the next day. It is then scheduled to depart Melbourne at 1100hrs and arrive in Sydney at 1220hrs, after which it will depart Sydney at 1330hrs. The flight will be operated by a B777-200 aircraft.



24 November 2010

* SQ 265, Melbourne – Sydney – Singapore, is scheduled to depart Melbourne at 1100hrs and arrive in Sydney at 1220hrs. It is then scheduled to depart Sydney at 1330hrs. The flight will be operated by a B777-200 aircraft.



We apologise to affected customers for the inconvenience that may result and seek their understanding.

Source:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/1095383/1/.html

SIA, SAS sign code-share agreement
By Jonathan Peeris | Posted: 24 November 2010 2308 hrs

SINGAPORE: Singapore Airlines' (SIA) customers can now enjoy more options when travelling to Scandinavia.

Currently, SIA operates three flights per week between Singapore and the Danish capital, Copenhagen.

However, from December 1st, SIA customers will be able to travel beyond Copenhagen to Helsinki, Oslo and Stockholm.

That is due to a code-share agreement signed between Singapore Airlines and Scandinavian Airlines (SAS).

These flights will be operated by SAS but under SIA's SQ code.

In return, SAS will add its SK code to SIA's flights between Copenhagen and Singapore, as well as on selected flights between Singapore and Bangkok.

SIA said the tie-up will pave the way for more leisure and business travel by offering customers of both airlines more travel options via Copenhagen and Singapore.

-CNA/ac

Source:http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/latest/story/0,4574,414867,00.html?

November 25, 2010, 5.20 pm (Singapore time)
SIA, Garuda sign codeshare deal
By ANGELA TAN

From 1 December 2010, customers of Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Garuda Indonesia will have more flights to choose from between Singapore and Denpasar (Bali, following the signing of a codeshare agreement between the two carriers.

Under the agreement, the two airlines will codeshare on a reciprocal basis on all flights between Singapore and Denpasar (Bali).

SIA operates three flights per day on the route while Garuda has daily flights.

Source:http://www.silkair.com/mbe/en_UK/content/corporate/newsflash/NF1001_25112010.jsp



SILKAIR TO START SERVICES TO PEKANBARU

SilkAir, the regional wing of Singapore Airlines, will add the 34th destination to its route network with the launch of thrice-weekly flights between Singapore and the Indonesian city of Pekanbaru in February 2011.

Pekanbaru will be the airline’s eighth Indonesian destination after Balikpapan, Lombok, Manado, Medan, Palembang, Solo and Surabaya. The capital of Riau in Sumatra, Pekanbaru will be another major gateway into Indonesia from Singapore.

Subject to regulatory approvals, SilkAir will operate morning services between Singapore and Pekanbaru on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays beginning 28 February 2011. (Details of the flight schedules are shown in the attachment)

"We are very excited to announce the addition of Pekanbaru to the SilkAir network. We see good prospects for continued growth in air traffic between Singapore and Indonesia and believe that the launch of our eighth Indonesian destination will further boost travel between the two countries,” said Mr Marvin Tan, SilkAir’s Chief Executive.

Pekanbaru’s established role as a base for international oil companies and the pulp and paper industry presents promising prospects for corporate travel and airfreight.

For customers from Pekanbaru, the new service will offer direct flights to Singapore and the convenience of onward connections to more than 90 international cities in the joint Singapore Airlines-SilkAir network.

Pekanbaru also offers a number of cultural and leisure attractions, such as the Great Mosque of An-Nur, Riau Cultural Park, the Sang Nila Utama Museum and numerous traditional markets including Pasar Bawah and Pasar Tengeh.

For more information on SilkAir, including its destinations and services, please visit silkair.com.

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Source:http://www.silkair.com/mbe/en_UK/content/corporate/newsflash/NF1001_26072010.jsp

SILKAIR INCREASING FLIGHT FREQUENCY IN NORTHERN WINTER SCHEDULE

SilkAir, the regional wing of Singapore Airlines, will be increasing the frequency of its flights to a number of regional destinations to keep up with growing demand for air travel in Asia. The changes will be reflected in the airline’s Northern Winter schedule (31 October 2010 to 26 March 2011).

An additional daily service will be introduced on the Singapore-Penang route, providing customers with a choice of four daily flights.

SilkAir will also be increasing capacity on the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur route with the addition of five flights per week on weekdays, bringing the total flight frequency to 42 flights per week.

Additionally, there will be an increase in the frequency of flights on the Singapore-Medan (from 14 to 15 flights a week), Singapore-Kuching (from 3 to 4 flights a week), Singapore-Kunming (from 2 to 3 flights a week) and Singapore-Siem Reap (from 8 to 9 weekly flights) routes.

Supplementary services will also be operated to cater for higher travel demand during the year-end peak season. There will be an increase in the number of services to Cebu (up to 8 weekly flights), Thiruvananthapuram (up to 4 weekly flights) and Kathmandu (up to 6 weekly flights) in December and January.

The Singapore-Bangalore flights will be re-timed from the current night departure to a daytime departure. This change would provide customers travelling to and from Bangalore with more flight connection options through the combined network of Singapore Airlines and SilkAir. The frequency of flights on this route will, however, be reduced from seven to five flights per week taking into consideration the time needed to build up the loads in this new time window.

For more information on SilkAir, including its destinations and services, please visit silkair.com.

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Source:http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/takingoff/chi-survey-foreign-airlines-top-us-112910,0,5240702.story

Foreign airlines top Zagat's best-of survey
By Josh Noel, Tribune newspapers

Foreign airlines significantly outranked domestic airlines in Zagat's annual airline survey, with Singapore Airlines garnering the single highest score. Virgin America was the highest-scoring airline that flies within the United States according to the figures that were released today.

Zagat, which has surveyed travelers about the state of the airline industry since 1990, asked participants to rank airlines on a 30-point scale regarding comfort, service, food and quality of website. Subjects such as timeliness, check-in and luggage policy and in-flight entertainment were also covered.

Continental Airlines was the top-rated "large domestic premium class" airline with a score of 21, followed by American (18), Delta (17), United (16) and AirTran (15). Among "large domestic economy class" airlines, JetBlue scored highest (19) followed by Southwest (15).

The single highest score was awarded to Singapore Airlines (28) in the "international premium class" category.

Overall results can be found here:http://www.zagat.com/promo.aspx?pn=132#topRated

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Singapore Airlines Cargo pleads guilty in price fixing probe, agrees to pay $48 million fine

WASHINGTON - Singapore Airlines Cargo is admitting that it conspired to fix prices for international shipments and agreed to pay a $48 million criminal fine.
The Justice Department announced Tuesday that the airline had agreed to plead guilty in a price fixing scheme from 2002 through 2006.

According to the charging document, the airline agreed with competitors to set rates on cargo shipments to and from the United States.

The airline, a subsidiary spun off of parent company Singapore Airlines in 2001, has agreed to co-operate with an antitrust investigation that is already under way.

So far, 20 airlines and 17 industry executives have been charged. The defendants have paid $1.7 billion in criminal fines. Four executives have been sentenced to prison, while charges are pending against the others.

Source:http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2010/11/30/singapore-airlines-cargo-set-aside-s-million-antitrust-fine-fiscal-year/

Singapore Airlines Cargo: To Set Aside S$61.92 Million For US Antitrust Fine This Fiscal Year
By Gaurav Raghuvanshi; Dow Jones Newswires; +65 64154 154; gaurav.raghuvanshi@dowjones.com
Published November 30, 2010 | Dow Jones Newswires


SINGAPORE -(Dow Jones)- The cargo unit of Singapore Airlines Ltd. (C6L.SG) said Wednesday that it will set aside S$61.92 million in the current financial year as provision for an antitrust fine that it has agreed to pay the U.S. Department of Justice.

Singapore Airlines Cargo Pte. Ltd. had earlier agreed to settle the antitrust investigation started by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2006 and pleaded guilty to fixing prices on air-cargo shipments and will pay a $48 million criminal fine.

The agreement will bring the U.S. Department of Justice's air cargo investigations to a close for Singapore Airlines Cargo, the company said in a statement to Singapore Exchange.

The U.S. Justice Department said that Singapore Airlines Cargo engaged in a conspiracy to fix prices from 2002 until at least February 2006.

Prosecutors said the Singapore Airlines unit and other air cargo shippers held meetings and conversations in which they agreed on shipping rates, in violation of federal antitrust law. The shippers also monitored and enforced each other's adherence to the price-fixing agreements, prosecutors said.

Singapore Airlines Cargo is the 20th airline to plead guilty or agree to plead guilty to fixing prices on air cargo. The Justice Department said it has collected more than $1.7 billion in fines in the long-running investigation.

Source:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1096649/1/.html

SIA, SilkAir to increase fuel surcharge
Posted: 01 December 2010 1832 hrs

SINGAPORE: Flying on Singapore Airlines (SIA) and SilkAir will get more expensive.

The carriers are increasing their fuel surcharge for tickets issued from December 2.

The surcharge will represent an increase in price of between US$3 and US$25 per sector, depending on the distance and class of travel.

SIA said this was a result of a sustained escalation in the price of jet fuel in recent months.

The price of jet fuel is now above US$95 per barrel.

The increase in the fuel surcharge is the first since June 2008.

The last three revisions were to reduce fuel surcharges in September 2008, November 2008 and February 2009.

SIA said the adjustments will offer only partial relief from the higher operating costs arising from increases in the price of jet fuel.

It said it will continue to closely monitor the price of fuel and keep surcharges under constant review.

- CNA/fa

Source:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1096849/1/.html

SIA complying with A380 inspection directives
By Wayne Chan | Posted: 02 December 2010 1608 hrs

SINGAPORE: Singapore Airlines said it has been complying with recommendations for inspections to ensure the continued safe operation of its Airbus A380 fleet.

The airline was responding to reports that the Australian Transport Safety Bureau had ordered Qantas to conduct detailed checks on its Rolls-Royce-made Airbus A380 engines.

ATSB had identified a potential manufacturing defect which it said could lead to an oil fire and engine failure.

SIA said the checks are in full compliance with directives issued by the European Aviation Safety Agency and guidance from engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce.

SIA added that these inspections are not expected to affect flight timings.

It explained that alternate aircraft will be deployed in place of A380s, on flights to and from Sydney and Melbourne until December 16 and supplementary flights will also be operated.

Asked whether it would follow Qantas in taking steps to sue Rolls-Royce, SIA said its first priority was to ensure the continued safe operation of its fleet.

Qantas said it had taken measures to ensure it can litigate against Rolls-Royce if discussions surrounding the recent failure of a Trent 900 engine powering one of its A380s do not produce a commercial settlement.

-CNA/ac

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Source:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1097251/1/.html

SIA temporarily stops flights from Milan to Barcelona
By Satish Cheney | Posted: 04 December 2010 2103 hrs

SINGAPORE : Singapore Airlines (SIA) said its daily service from Milan to Barcelona and from Barcelona to Milan has been temporarily stopped.

This is because of a state of emergency in Spain following a strike by air traffic controllers there which has paralysed Spanish airports for the second day.

Barcelona is the only Spanish city SIA flies to on its Singapore-Milan-Barcelona route.

A spokesman said flights on the Singapore-Milan and Milan-Singapore sector are still operational.

The state of emergency has forced several other airlines to also stop flights to Spain.

Air France and KLM are among affected airlines.

- CNA/ms

Source:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1097387/1/.html

SIA resumes daily service between Milan and Barcelona
By Sharon See | Posted: 05 December 2010 2024 hrs

SINGAPORE : Singapore Airlines (SIA) has resumed daily service between Milan and the Spanish city of Barcelona after a one-day temporary stoppage.

The airline only operates one flight daily on that route.

The service was suspended on Saturday after Spain declared a state of emergency because of a strike by air traffic controllers.

The Spanish military has since forced the air traffic controllers to end their strike.

The strike hit an estimated 300,000 passengers on a long holiday weekend, whipping up the most chaotic scenes since an Icelandic volcano erupted in April and halted 100,000 flights worldwide, said wire reports.

- CNA /ls

SINGAPORE AIRLINES - BUSINESS CLASS


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Source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101206/...poreair_a380_1


Singapore Airlines to deploy A380 on Singapore-LA route

– 1 hr 12 mins ago

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore Airlines, the world's second-largest carrier by market value, said on Monday it will deploy the Airbus A380 superjumbo on the Singapore-Los Angeles route beginning next year despite a controversy over the plane's engines.

Recent problems involving the Rolls-Royce engines on the biggest passenger carrier in the world have forced Australian carrier Qantas to ground some of its A380 aircraft, preventing it serving the Sydney-Los Angeles route for the time being.

Both SIA, which currently operates 11 A380s and has another 9 on order, and Qantas are using Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines on their A380 aircraft. SIA currently does not use the A380 on the Singapore-Los Angeles route.

"This is a significant and smart move by the carrier (SIA), which will likely capitalize on the busy transpacific route with its 471-seater A380," said Shukor Yusof, analyst at Standard & Poor's.

SIA said its A380 has been designed to seat 471 passengers in a three-class configuration, compared to 375 on its Boeing 747-400.

"This means that while there will be capacity growth, it will be incremental and sustainable for the airline," SIA said in a statement, adding that the route would start after the carrier receives its 12th A380 next year.

Last month, a Qantas A380 flight between Singapore and Sydney suffered a mid-air engine failure, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in the city-state.

The Australian carrier is claiming damages from Rolls-Royce over the engines on its A380s and loss of business as investigators concluded a design fault was the likely cause of the November 4 incident.

(Reporting by Harry Suhartono; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

SINGAPORE AIRLINES CABIN & CLASSES

SINGAPORE AIRLINES SUITES - Going beyond first class.
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SIA resumes Sydney flights with A380 aircraft.

Singapore Airlines resumes A380 Sydney service 10DEC10

Singapore Airlines from 10DEC10 is resuming Airbus A380 service to Australia, with 1 of 2 Daily Singapore – Sydney flight to be operated by A380 once again.

Details:

Singapore – Sydney A380 service resumptions
SQ231/222 eff 10DEC11 (11DEC10 from SYD)
SQ221/212 eff 17DEC11 (18DEC10 from SYD, remains unchanged)

Source:http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-12-09/singapore-air-a380-delivery-delayed-over-koito-seats.html

Singapore Air A380 Delivery Delayed Over Koito Seats
December 09, 2010, 11:37 PM EST
By Chan Sue Ling

(Updates with share performance in sixth paragraph.)

Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Singapore Airlines Ltd., the world’s second-largest carrier by market value, said the introduction of its 12th Airbus SAS A380 has been delayed after Koito Industries Ltd. failed to deliver business-class seats on time.

The plane had been due for delivery this quarter and “has been delayed as a result of the issues that Koito has faced,” Nicholas Ionides, a spokesman for the carrier, said in an e-mail reply to Bloomberg queries. He said the delay isn’t affecting the airline’s current operations and he expects the plane to arrive before the end of March.

The postponement is the second time Singapore Air has pushed back introduction of an A380 because of late Koito seat deliveries. Rivals All Nippon Airways Co., Continental Airlines Inc. and Thai Airways International Pcl have also suffered delays after Koito in February admitted it falsified test results and made unauthorized design changes to its seats for at least a decade.

“We are working closely with Airbus, Koito and the relevant regulatory authorities and expect the issues to be resolved soon,” Ionides said in the e-mail.

Koito Industries spokesman Hidetsugu Matsudaira had no comment on the Singapore Air statement.

Koito rose 3.5 percent to 150 yen as of 1:31 p.m. in Tokyo trading. Parent Koito Manufacturing Co., part-owned by Toyota Motor Corp., advanced 0.6 percent to 1,275 yen. Singapore Air fell 0.9 percent to S$15.66 in Singapore trading.

Seat Glitch

Singapore Air’s A380, configured to carry 471 passengers, is fitted with 60 business-class seats on the second level of the double-decker aircraft, according to its website. The carrier received its 11th superjumbo in July, six months late because of the seat glitch.

The airline plans to operate its 12th A380 between Singapore and Los Angeles, via Narita, Japan, when it’s delivered, Ionides said today. The aircraft will replace the Boeing Co. 747-400 currently used on the route.

Koito said in April it would stop taking orders for plane seats for as long as three years to focus on maintenance, including checking about 1,000 commercial planes in which its seats are installed. The Yokohama-based seat manufacturer paid 3.6 billion yen ($43 million) in compensation in the year ended in March and expects to pay another 3.3 billion yen this fiscal year.

Thai Airways, Thailand’s largest carrier, said in October it’s seeking as much as $180 million in compensation from the seatmaker.

Koito also makes business-class seats for Singapore Air’s Airbus A340-500s, as well as first-class seats for its Boeing Co. 777-300ERs, according to Ionides.

Source:http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/sia-to-change-a380-economy-cabin-layout

SIA's new A380s will lose economy cabin on upper deck
Published: 11/12/2010 - Filed under: News »

One of the advantages in booking an economy class ticket on one of SIA’s A380 super jumbos is that you get to sit on the upper deck. But take advantage of this facility while you can.

As regular travellers will testify this is the choicest location for economy passengers. The small upper deck cabin (located behind business class) has a club-like atmosphere and a quieter ambience than in the economy cabin’s main location on the A380’s lower deck. Passengers are accommodated eight-across (2-4-2) upstairs compared with ten-across (3-4-3) downstairs.

As the word has got around the upper cabin has become ever popular. A reader, recently returned from Sydney in economy class, reports that upstairs can be fully booked while choicer seats (with window or aisle locations) remain empty downstairs.

But all good things must come to an end. Although SIA has not announced the news officially, Business Traveller has learnt that the carrier’s 13th and subsequent A380s (scheduled for delivery in May 2011 onwards) will have the upper economy removed in favour of extending business class all the way to the back.

It means that these later A380s (SIA has a total of 25 on order) will accommodate more business passengers to meet demand. But this will be at the expense of those in economy class.

At the time of writing, it seems that SIA’s existing 12 A380s will retain their same configuration.

The reconfigured A380s are likely to appear on prime business routes such as Singapore to London Heathrow, Paris CDG and Zurich as well as the forthcoming Singapore-Tokyo-Los Angeles route (see Online news December 3).

The existing A380s (with the upper deck economy) would be rostered on sectors where business demand is not so high, such as Singapore to Melbourne and Sydney, or regional routes like Singapore to Hong Kong.

The good news is that readers have months or years to sample the upper deck economy class. It will be some considerable time before the new batch of A380s takes over.

In the meantime, passengers travelling from May onwards must check their seat assignments carefully. They must also note that airlines can, and do, make last minute plane changes.

Source:http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/travel/2013669393_webairlinefavorites14.html?syndication=rss

Foreign airlines rank high among travelers
Foreign airlines significantly outranked domestic airlines in Zagat's annual airline survey, with Singapore Airlines garnering the highest score. Virgin America was the highest-scoring airline that flies within the U.S.

By Josh Noel
Chicago Tribune

Foreign airlines significantly outranked domestic airlines in Zagat's annual airline survey, with Singapore Airlines garnering the highest score. Virgin America was the highest-scoring airline that flies within the U.S.

Zagat, which has surveyed travelers about the state of the airline industry since 1990, asked participants to rank airlines on a 30-point scale regarding comfort, service, food and quality of Web site. Subjects such as timeliness, check-in, luggage policy and in-flight entertainment were also covered.

Continental Airlines was the top-rated "large domestic premium class" airline with a score of 21, followed by American (18), Delta (17), United (16) and AirTran (15). Among "large domestic economy class" airlines, JetBlue scored highest (19), followed by Southwest (15).

The highest score was awarded to Singapore Airlines (28) in "international premium class."

The survey covered 16 domestic and 74 international airlines as well as 30 major domestic airports.

Conducted on zagat.com, more than 8,000 frequent fliers participated.

For full results: www.tinyurl.com/232e7nw.

Source:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1099353/1/.html

Woman charged with endangering SIA flight
By Teo Xuan Wei | Posted: 15 December 2010 1721 hrs

SINGAPORE: An Irishwoman has been charged with endangering a Singapore Airlines flight by trying to open the aircraft door mid-flight.

Diana Mary Scanlon, 28, is accused of committing the offence on November 30 on board SQ 327.

One hour before the flight was due to touch down in Singapore at 7.55am, Ms Scanlon, who works in the hospitality industry, committed the alleged offence. She was understood to be heading to Perth.

The court ordered her to be remanded for two weeks for psychiatric assessment at the Institute of Mental Health.

Her case will be mentioned again on December 29.

If convicted, she could be fined up to S$5,000 and/or jailed up to one year.

-CNA/ac

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Source:http://www.relax.com.sg/relax/news/515436/S_pore_Airlines_to_increase_flights_in_2011.html

Singapore Airlines to increase flights in 2011
AsiaOne | Wed, Dec 15 2010

Customers can expect increased frequencies to destinations like Taipei, Osaka, Male, Athens and Rome.

SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) will increase flights from March 27 to Oct 20 next year on selected routes, in response to growing demand.

Changes to its Northern Summer 2011 schedule, announced by SIA on Wednesday, will see frequencies in the Asian and European sectors boosted, together with the extension of the Airbus A380 service to Los Angeles (LA).
Click here to find out more!Click here to find out more!

Starting March 27, the A380 will replace one of the Boeing 747-400 aircraft on the LA service which flies via Tokyo Narita. LA will be the A380 fleet's eighth destination, since the carrier started operating the superjumbo in 2007.

In Asia, four weekly flights will be added to the Singapore-Taipei route, bringing the total number of weekly frequencies to 18. Osaka services will increase to twice-daily from ten times per week, with four more flights.

Flight frequencies to Male in the Maldives will increase from 7 to 10 per week, with the addition of a new service that departs Singapore in the morning and returns from Male in the early afternoon.

Flights between Singapore and Athens, as well as those between Singapore and Rome, will operate three times per week from end-June 2011 to October 2011, up from the current two times.

During the Northern Summer schedule, SIA also plans to fly to its first South American destination with a three-flight-per-week service to Sao Paulo via Barcelona. The effective date of SQ68/67 has not been confirmed, and is still subject to Brazilian regulatory approval, SIA said.

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Source:http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_615749.html

Dec 20, 2010
CHINA CARGO AIRLINES, $65m DEAL
SIA acquires 16% stake
By Linette Lin

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SINGAPORE Airlines Cargo has signed an agreement to acquire 16 per cent of China Cargo Airlines for 328 million yuan (S$65 million), subject to regulatory and other approvals.

China Cargo Airlines is a Shanghai-based company incorporated in the People's Republic of China, with an initial registered capital of 950 million yuan.

It operates a fleet of 13 aircraft comprising three Airbus A300 freighters, two Boeing 747-400 freighters, three Boeing 777 freighters and five McDonnell Douglas MD-11 freighters whose global network global route network extends to 26 destinations outside Shanghai, covering major cargo ports in China, Asia, Europe and the United States.

Following an investment agreement signed in Shanghai on Monday, the parties will seek approvals for China Cargo Airlines to be re-organised into a limited liability Chinese-foreign equity joint venture company with an increase registered capital of 3 billion yuan.

China Eastern Airlines will now hold a 51 per cent stake, China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company will hold a 17 per cent stake and both Concord Pacific Limited and SIA cargo will hold 16 per cent each.

SIA Cargo's President, Mr Tan Kai Ping, said: 'We are excited about the joint venture. It affords SIA Cargo greater participation in the booming cargo transportation sector in China and we look forward to working closely with our new partners.'

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SINGAPORE AIRLINES ECONOMY CLASS
fXyANuRJwXc

From airlineroute.net


Singapore Airlines re-opens reservation for new Sao Paulo service with schedule change

As per 30DEC10 GDS inventory display, Singapore Airlines has re-opened reservation for its planned 3 weekly Singapore – Barcelona – Sao Paulo service, due to launch on 28MAR11.

However, flight schedules has been revised, in particular for Sao Paulo departure has been pushed back by nearly 4 hours.

Schedule:

SQ068 SIN0040 – 0820BCN0930 – 1555GRU 77W 146
SQ067 GRU0145 – 1735BCN1845 – 1335+1SIN 77W 257


I saw GRU on SQ website.

Source:http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-12-30/singapore-air-new-ceo-may-shed-virgin-atlantic-stake.html

Singapore Air New CEO May Shed Virgin Atlantic Stake
December 30, 2010, 11:21 PM EST
By Chan Sue Ling

Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Singapore Airlines Ltd.’s Goh Choon Phong, who takes over as chief executive officer tomorrow, may shed the last major remains of the carrier’s global expansion strategy as he confronts rising competition in Asia.

Goh, 47, may get offers for the airline’s 49 percent stake in Virgin Atlantic after the U.K. carrier said this month it had received tie-up inquiries. Outgoing CEO Chew Choon Seng called the investment “underperforming” two years ago and has said the airline would consider a sale.

In Asia, Goh faces low-fare competition on long-haul routes from Jetstar and AirAsia X Sdn., as well as renewed efforts by Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. and Korean Air Lines Co. to lure lucrative business-class travelers. Middle East carriers Emirates Airline, Qatar Airways Ltd. and Etihad Airways have also ordered close to 300 planes since 2007 as they build hubs linking Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

“Goh has a tough job ahead of him,” said K. Ajith, a UOB- Kay Hian Research Pte analyst in Singapore. “The environment is drastically different from five or 10 years ago, when SIA managed to fend off competition by focusing on its branding.”

Virgin, 51 percent owned by billionaire Richard Branson, hired Deutsche Bank AG to explore options as British Airways Plc boosts cooperation with American Airlines across the Atlantic and completes a merger with Madrid-based Iberia Lineas Aereas de Espana SA. Singapore Air bought its stake in a 600 million-pound ($930 million) investment concluded in 2000.

Singapore Air would consider “interesting opportunities” for the stake, Nicholas Ionides, a spokesman, said in an e-mail. Goh, who joined the carrier as a cadet administrative officer in 1990 after graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, declined interview requests, he said.

Virgin Offer

Whether Singapore Air will sell the Virgin stake will largely depend on what price is offered since the carrier isn’t short of funds, said Rohan Suppiah, an analyst at Kim Eng Securities Pte in Singapore.

“SIA isn’t in a hurry to sell, but if they get a fair price they will,” he said. “Virgin hasn’t provided any significant synergies over the years.”

Delta Air Lines Inc. and Middle East airlines are among carriers exploring a Virgin tie-up, Sky News reported this month, without saying where it got the information from. Singapore Air’s stake complicates a deal as local ownership rules limit non-European investors to minority stakes.

“Either Singapore Air sells or Branson loses effective control by selling part of his stake,” said Andrew Miller, chief executive officer of CAPA Consulting LLC, which advises airlines.

Very Supportive

Singapore Air is “very supportive of our business strategy including the review by Deutsche Bank,” Greg Dawson, a Virgin spokesman, said without elaborating. Virgin operates 38 twin- aisle planes, according to its website.

Chew, who has spent almost four decades at Singapore Air, sold a leasing arm and spun off a ground-handling unit while CEO to focus on the carrier’s main flying business. He will take over as Singapore Exchange Ltd.’s chairman on Jan. 1.

Chew’s predecessor, Cheong Choong Kong, bought stakes in Virgin and Air New Zealand Ltd. to expand overseas. The value of the Air New Zealand investment was written down in 2001, and the remaining holdings were sold off three years later. Virgin was expected to hold an initial public offering within three to five years of Singapore Air’s investment, Chew said in 2006.

Shares Trailing

Singapore Air, which operates 110 planes, was unchanged at S$15.54 as of 11:04 a.m. in the city-state. The carrier has trailed the 15-stock Bloomberg Asia Pacific Airlines Index this year amid rising competition for premium and low-cost travelers. The shares have climbed 4 percent this year, compared with the index’s 27 percent advance.

Competition is intensifying in the premium market, which accounts for about 40 percent of Singapore Air’s sales. Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific is working on a HK$1 billion ($128 million) business-class upgrade to lure executive travelers.

Korean Air, which aims to get 50 percent of passenger sales from premium classes by 2019, will receive its first five Airbus SAS A380s next year. The superjumbos will each be fitted with 94 business-class seats, compared with the 60 found in Singapore Air’s A380s. Emirates is building a fleet of 90 A380s.

“Singapore Air needs to think about how to position for the longer-term given the competitive landscape,” said Christopher Wong, who oversees $45 billion of assets, including Singapore Air shares, at Aberdeen Asset Management.

Budget Competition

Singapore Air has responded to budget competition through a 33 percent stake in Tiger Airways Holdings Ltd. The low-cost affiliate, which operates from Singapore and Australia, plans to form a budget airline in Bangkok next year with Thai Airways International Pcl.

Tiger, Qantas Airways Ltd.’s Jetstar and AirAsia Bhd. are leading discount carriers’ market share gains in Asia as they add new planes. Budget airlines accounted for about 22 percent of passengers in the first 10 months of the year at Singapore’s Changi airport. That compares with 12 percent in 2008, according to data from operator Changi Airport Group.

Low-fare carriers are also adding intercontinental routes. Jetstar started flights to Melbourne from Singapore this month, touting fares 30 percent cheaper than full-service airlines. It plans to add more long-haul services next year. AirAsia’s long- haul affiliate is offering flights to Australia, London and Japan from its base in Kuala Lumpur.

Singapore Air’s corporate travel base and reputation will be an asset as Goh faces the new competition, said Steven Lim, who manages about $200 million at Daiwa SB Investments Ltd. in Singapore. The carrier, among six airlines with Skytrax’s highest five-star rating, has also been profitable every year since going public in 1985.

“As a business hub, Singapore Air does enjoy the advantage of business travel,” Lim said. “Goh’s immediate challenge is to continue Chew’s good work, keep the company’s profit record intact and maintain the reputation Singapore Air has as a premium airline.”

Since Air France and British Airways had been denied landing authorizations at John F. Kennedy airport by the Port Authority of New York both airlines were searching for routes to operate their Concordes on. An important and lucrative market to BA, besides North America, was Asia and its former colonies, such as Singapore (SIN), Hong Kong (HKG) and the 'Kangaroo Routes' to Australia - more specifically Sydney (SYD) - where 747-200s making the long journey had to make two stop-overs.
During the route proving flights, before entry into service, a great deal of flight time was spend on trips to the Far East and Australian in preparation for Concordes eventual use on these routes.

The first step of a Concorde route to South-East Asia and Australia was the inaugural BA Concorde flight between London - Heathrow (LHR) and Bahrain (BAH) on 21 January 1976 by G-BOAA

Unfortunately, the route was mainly overland, forcing the Concorde to fly at subsonic speeds on large portions of the LHR-BAH flight. But the aircraft still managed to save around two and a half hours over the regular flights with a M.95 cruise speed during these segments. The supersonic operations over the Saudi desert had to be dropped after some complaints from nomads whose camels reportedly stopped breeding because of the supersonic boom!

The choice of Bahrain as stop-over for the Concorde operations was due to the ideal location en route to South-East Asia. Furthermore the engines had an improved performance at 55-60,000ft, where the air is colder around the tropics. The better conditions could add up to 200 more miles range to the aircraft with 75 passengers on board

On 26 October 1977, BA and Singapore Airlines announced an agreement for a thrice-weekly Concorde service between London and Singapore via Bahrain. On 09 December 1977, BA and Singapore Airlines started a service between LHR and Singapore - Paya Lebar via Bahrain, bringing the travel time to only 9 hours.

This service basically was a very early form of code share/alliance between both airlines. The technical crew and operations were supplied by British Airways while the flight attendants were 50/50 between the two.

BA had battled hard with the Indian government to gain the approval to fly supersonic over the country, which the Concorde was forced to avoid, adding more flight time and increasing the fuel consumption. The Indian government had demanded that in exchange Air India (AI) would get more slots and 5th freedom rights at LHR.

The Concorde assigned to the Singapore route was G-BOAD (c/n 210), The airplane was easily identified, as it had been repainted with the Singapore Airlines' livery on its left side, while BA's was kept on the right side.

The Singapore - Bahrain leg against the headwinds was sometimes payload-restricted because of the temperature at Paya Lebar Airport, even though the Concorde could accelerate straight after its take-off to M2.02.

The service was withdrawn on 13 December 1977 after only 3 return flights, because of complaints from the Malaysian government about the supersonic boom over the Straits of Malacca, on the West coast of Malaysia. But in the summer of the same year, Malaysia Airlines plans of further capacity increase on the London route were denied in order to protect BA and Cathy Pacific, causing a clash between the Malaysian and British governments. In addition to these difficult relations, Singapore Airlines was a tough Malaysian competitor.

Even though the service was not running the aircraft kept the Singapore Airlines livery during this time, giving them a free adverts as the aircraft was utilised on other routes, including flights to the USA

On 24 January 1979 the service was resumed with new routings avoiding Malaysia and a recommended take-off from runway 02 at SIN to avoid flying over the Malaysian state of Johore.

The service was ended for good on 01 November 1980, mainly because of falling traffic on the route, which was reportedly losing around ? millions a year. The loads had been very low, especially on westbound flights. The operations, especially at subsonic speeds, were extremely expensive, demanding load factors that could not be achieved.


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^^ Very interesting article!! The Concorde looks really weird with SIA's livery...................................

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Source:http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/companies/story/0,4574,420328,00.html?

SIA still a force to reckon with
By VEN SREENIVASAN

GOH Choon Phong, who headed SIA Cargo during one of its most tumultuous periods between 2006 and 2010, takes over the helm of Singapore Airlines as the industry looks set to enjoy its second consecutive year of recovery after the 2008 recession.

More critically, he takes over at a time when Asia is now the world's biggest, fastest growing and most profitable aviation market. And within Asia, Singapore - SIA's home base - has become the world's seventh busiest airhub.

Despite this, 2011 and the decade ahead could prove to be a particularly challenging period for SIA, and its new CEO.

The airline business is cyclical in nature and air travel demand fluctuates with economic cycles. Fuel prices are unpredictable, and the industry is vulnerable to terrorism and global pandemics.

But, more importantly for SIA, the industry has changed significantly over the past three decades, with new business models, management systems and training regimes emerging.

One of the biggest challenges for SIA this decade will come from low-cost carriers (LCCs). They now account for over a fifth of the traffic at Changi, making it the de facto regional LCC hub. On its part, SIA has a foot in the LCC game with its 33 per cent stake in Tiger Airways.

Still, its regional services (operated largely through SilkAir) will increasingly feel the heat from the low-cost competition in the years ahead. About a third of short-haul and medium-haul travel in South-east Asia is now via budget carriers.

Recently, regional low-cost carriers have also moved into long-haul routes.

It is too early to say how Jetstar's decision to hub its ex-Australian long-haul operations in Singapore will impact SIA. The Qantas subsidiary's Singapore-Melbourne services are a prelude to an array of offerings which will include New Zealand, East Asia and Europe. And just 350 kilometres north, AirAsia X has been doing a roaring business with its long-haul services from Kuala Lumpur to Japan, the UK and Australia. With ticket prices at a third cheaper than premium carriers, including SIA, these players are attractive propositions for the region's budget-conscious travellers.

SIA also faces significant challenges on its intercontinental services. Imitation is the best form of flattery, but the copycats have lately upped the ante, especially in the premium travel segment.

Cash-rich Middle Eastern carriers are fitting their planes with state-of-the-art luxuries and cabin suites, and players closer to home such as Cathay Pacific and Korean Air are spending millions of dollars to upgrade their business class cabins to lure the Asian corporate dollar. As the decade rolls along, ambitious players from India and China will join this battle.

And the premium market accounts for about 40 per cent of SIA's seat revenue.

The coming decade could also see a wave of liberalisation and M&As in the industry sweeping eastwards to Asia.

An enlarged British Airways with Iberia is keen to buy into Indian carrier, while further east, the Air China-Cathay partnership is cornering the world's fastest growing aviation market.

SIA has not had pleasant experiences on this front. It had to write down and ultimately write off its investments in Air New Zealand in 2001. Two years ago, it failed to buy into China Eastern. And after coughing up some £600 million (S$1.2 billion) 10 years ago for its 49 per cent stake in Virgin Atlantic, it sits as an unhappy partner in this venture where Richard Branson calls the shots.

Despite the challenges, SIA boasts an unbroken record of profitability that goes back some three decades.

For the first half of FY2010-11, it turned in a profit of $633 million, a turnaround from the $466 million loss in FY2009/2010. Group revenue improved 19 per cent to $7.1 billion, thanks to recoveries in load factors and yields.

Third-quarter results, which will be announced next month, are expected to be strong, thanks to buoyant year-end travel demand. And the year ahead should be a good one, if the International Air Transport Association's (Iata) latest projection is any guide.

Still, this is an industry which is vulnerable to sudden and unexpected changes in business cycles, fuel price fluctuations, currency volatility, pandemics, wars and global terrorism. Some analysts already warn of the danger of overcapacity kicking in as new plane deliveries - especially in the fast-growing markets of Asia and the Middle East - flow through.

All the same, perhaps the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) was being too pessimistic when it recently described SIA as a shrinking force.

This is a carrier which has confounded the sceptics time and again. And one major trump card SIA has up its sleeve is Singapore's emergence as a key global business and convention hub, and an increasingly popular tourism destination. It also has one of the sharpest management teams in the business.

Going into the new decade, how SIA - and its new CEO - tackle the new challenges and opportunities will determine whether SIA remains the force it is today.

^^ Very interesting article!! The Concorde looks really weird with SIA's livery...................................


Although the Concorde service between Singapore and London was not commercially viable at all, we still clearly see how aggressive SQ was:)

Source:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/1102875/1/.html

SIA announces organisational restructuring
By Jonathan Peeris | Posted: 05 January 2011 1823 hrs

SINGAPORE : Singapore Airlines (SIA) new CEO Goh Choon Phong has announced an organisational restructuring that he said will more closely align the company's commercial, operational and corporate planning activities.

With effect from February 1, all commercial areas, including marketing and sales as well as the delivery of products and services, will be consolidated under Executive Vice President for Commercial, Mak Swee Wah.

Mak is currently Executive Vice President for Operations and Services.

At the same time, current Executive Vice President for Human Resources and Planning, Ng Chin Hwee will oversee all human resources and operational activities as Executive Vice President Human Resources and Operations.

These will include the divisions of Cabin Crew, Engineering, Flight Operations and Human Resources.

A separate Corporate Planning division will also be formed, headed by current Divisional Vice President for Planning, Lee Lik Hsin.

Announcing the changes, Goh said that the restructuring will enable the company to be more nimble to take on new challenges and pursue fresh opportunities for growth.

Goh took over the company's helm from former CEO Chew Choon Seng on January 1.

He has been with the company since 1990, holding various senior management positions in Singapore as well as overseas.

- CNA /ls

Although the Concorde service between Singapore and London was not commercially viable at all, we still clearly see how aggressive SQ was:)

Yup they were pretty aggressive in the past.:cheers: Not sure if they are still as agressive now though.............................:cheers:

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Source:http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/rss/1047959/Singapore-Airlines-sponsors-Discovery-Channel/

Singapore Airlines sponsors Discovery Channel

Discovery Channel has signed up Singapore Airlines for a major year-long sponsorship deal across its 13 channels and online platforms.

The deal, brokered by Jane Reynolds, brand solutions manager at Discovery Networks UK, Damien Gillman of MEC Access, and Tony Lusk of Singapore Airlines, aims to raise awareness of the airline's luxury travel offering, targeting an upmarket male audience.

Discovery’s flagship channel in the UK will feature a range of sponsorship bumpers, with each creative execution including a range of fun facts about the Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 passenger jet.

The partnership will be reflected online with a co-branded luxury travel microsite, which will include articles on Singapore Airlines’ latest cabin products, specialist airline features and destination guides on some of Singapore Airlines’ global destinations.

In addition, the airline will launch a TV ad aired in the UK and Germany to showcase some of its features, such as the luxury on-board private suites with beds, wardrobes, entertainment centre and a gourmet dining service.

Reynolds said: "We are very pleased to team up with Singapore Airlines who are natural fit for the Discovery brand in the UK. This is an exciting first for our flagship channel and the partnership will extend across the Discovery platforms with a range of creative executions. We believe the partnership will add value to our consumer offering."

Tony Lusk, sales and marketing manager UK and Ireland, Singapore Airlines said: "Our two brands are a natural fit, sharing some core values, including the importance of harnessing the latest technologies for the benefit of our customers – providing an unforgettable experience whether exploring the world on a Singapore Airlines plane or via television."

In December 2010 Volkswagen rolled out a set of idents on the Discovery Channel as part of its integrated campaign to promote the Caddy van.

Despite the challenges, SIA boasts an unbroken record of profitability that goes back some three decades.

For the first half of FY2010-11, it turned in a profit of $633 million, a turnaround from the $466 million loss in FY2009/2010.

What? I know that Singapore had an unbroken record till the global recession, so it can't be unbroken anymore since it made a loss in 09/10. Or am I missing something here?

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What? I know that Singapore had an unbroken record till the global recession, so it can't be unbroken anymore since it made a loss in 09/10. Or am I missing something here?

Not sure about that either will try and check it out.:cheers:

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Source:http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK1101/S00151/singapore-airlines-expands-chch-service.htm

Singapore Airlines expands Chch Service
Tuesday, 11 January 2011, 12:28 pm
Press Release: Christchurch Airport

Singapore Airlines expands to daily services year-round for Christchurch

Christchurch International Airport Ltd (CIAL) welcomes Singapore Airlines’ announcement that the airline is to increase its schedule from five services per week to seven for the New Zealand winter (Northern Summer) schedule, commencing 30 March 2011.

The additional flights mean that Christchurch will be served daily on a year-round basis, increasing the number of seats for tourists and giving South Island travellers better flight options, as well as providing more cargo capacity and frequency for exporters.

James Lim, General Manager New Zealand for Singapore Airlines, says that an increase in passenger demand means that the airline is now able to permanently increase its presence in Christchurch. “Singapore Airlines is excited to be offering the South Island daily flights in response to increased demand. The introduction of daily flights is testament to the popularity of the route and Singapore Airlines’ commitment to providing greater flexibility, convenience and choice when travelling between Christchurch and Singapore. We are particularly pleased to be giving tourists all year round direct access to the beautiful South Island on a daily basis.”

Jim Boult, CIAL’s Chief Executive, welcomed the announcement. “This is fantastic news not only for the additional 30,000 passengers who will be able to travel in and out of Christchurch over the six month winter period, but also as it confirms a regular daily service throughout the year.”

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From CNA

Sao Paulo to become SIA's first South American destination
By Jonathan Peeris | Posted: 12 January 2011 1342 hrs

SINGAPORE: Sao Paulo will become Singapore Airlines' first South American destination when the national carrier starts its services to the largest city in Brazil on March 28.

Flights will operate three times a week on the Singapore-Barcelona-Sao Paulo route. SIA has made a codesharing deal on the flights with Spanish airline Spanair.

SIA will serve the route with Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft, featuring the airline's latest product offerings.

These include a new First Class seat; which converts into the largest full-flat bed in the sky, a 30-inch-wide Business Class seat; the widest in its class, and the unprecedented comfort and space offered by the all-new Economy Class seats.

- CNA/fa

Source:http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_624100.html

Jan 14, 2011
SIA staff sickened by carbon monoxide at US hotel

FOUR Singapore Airlines staff who fell ill at a hotel in San Francisco last Thursday may have suffered from carbon monoxide exposure, a city fire official said.

The quartet, who stayed in separate hotel rooms at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis, began complaining of flu-like symptoms late on Thursday and were rushed to the hospital.

Three of them were released and returned to the hotel early last Friday, a hotel spokesman said. The fourth was expected to be released later.

The poisonous gas may have been released a nearby restaurant's recently repaired heater and sucked into the hotel's air intake system, said Lt Mindy Talmadge a fire department spokesman.

That same heater may have sickened two other guests staying in the same two hotel rooms last Tuesday, Lt Talmadge said.

'That's what we're looking at right now,' said Lt Talmadge, adding that the carbon monoxide levels in those rooms dropped dramatically when firefighters shut off the heater on Friday. The restaurant is temporarily closed, Lt Talmadge added. -- AP

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Source:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/1105268/1/.html

SIA's overall load factor dips to 69.8% in December
By Millet Enriquez | Posted: 17 January 2011 2134 hrs

SINGAPORE : Singapore Airlines said it filled 69.8 per cent of the space available on its planes for passengers and cargo in December.

SIA's latest operating results showed the figure to be slightly lower than the 71.7 per cent achieved during the same month in 2009.

The carrier said its passenger capacity grew by 4.9 per cent on-year in December. This was due to the addition of flights to several destinations like Manchester (via Munich), Houston (via Moscow), Osaka and Seoul.

As a result of the capacity expansion, SIA said its passenger load factor dipped by 3.6 percentage points to 80.7 per cent last month.

In total, it ferried 1.51 million passengers in December - about one percentage point lower than the previous year's 1.53 million.

SIA said the smaller volume of lower-fare promotional traffic in December resulted in declines of passenger load factors in all regions.

Weather-related disruptions in Europe and Americas also affected the traditional peak travel period, the carrier added.

Meanwhile, SIA's overall cargo traffic rose 5.1 per cent, while cargo capacity increased by 4.9 per cent, leading to a 0.1 percentage point increase in cargo load factor for December.

While all regions saw an increase in cargo load factor, East Asia and Europe saw some decline.

East Asia shed 3.0 percentage points in its cargo load factor "as cargo traffic did not keep pace with capacity increases", while Europe's declined by 1.8 percentage points due to ongoing economic challenges, said SIA.

- CNA/al

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Source:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/1106126/1/.html
Singapore Airlines to raise fuel surcharge
By Jonathan Peeris | Posted: 21 January 2011 1824 hrs

SINGAPORE: Singapore Airlines (SIA) said it will increase its fuel surcharge for tickets issued on or after January 27.

SIA said the hike is a result of the recent sharp and sustained rise in the price of jet fuel which is now above 110 US dollar per barrel.

The increase will range between three and 27 US dollars per sector depending on the distance and class of travel and includes flights on its unit, SilkAir.

As an example, Economy class passengers travelling between Singapore and Southeast Asian destinations will now have to add 28 US dollars to their ticket price.

If the same travellers are heading to Europe or South Africa, the surcharge is 128 US dollars, while travellers to the US will have to fork out 215 US dollars.

SIA said the application of fuel surcharges may be subject to regulatory approval or variation in some individual markets.

The carrier added that the adjustments will offer only partial relief from the higher operating costs arising from increases in the price of jet fuel.

SIA said it will continue to closely monitor the price of fuel and keep surcharges under constant review.

- CNA/fa

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Source:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/1106845/1/.html

SIA Engineering reports 21.8% rise in net profit
By Stella Lee | Posted: 25 January 2011 2024 hrs

SINGAPORE : SIA Engineering Company on Tuesday said its net profit rose 21.8 per cent to S$197.6 million for the nine months ended December 31, in tandem with the recovery in the aviation industry.

Revenue over the period rose 13.8 per cent to S$834.9 million, primarily contributed by maintenance, repair and overhaul work, as well as its fleet management programme.

Contributions from its associated and joint venture companies rose by 9.5 per cent to S$110.9 million.

Going forward, the company expects that demand for maintenance, repair and overhaul services will "remain firm".

The group added that its network of joint ventures has placed SIA Engineering "in a good position to capitalise on opportunities".

- CNA/ms

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Source:http://theedgesingapore.com/the-daily-edge/business/25492-singapore-airlines-3q-net-profit-likely-fell.html

Singapore Airlines 3Q net profit likely fell
Written by Dow Jones & Co, Inc
Thursday, 27 January 2011 17:05

Singapore Airlines (C6L.SG) is likely to report 3Q net profit of $371 million from $403.7 million a year earlier as the carrier is likely to provide for a fine for price fixing on air cargo shipments, according to a Dow Jones Newswires poll of five analysts.

Revenue likely rose to $3.84 billion from $3.42 billion, the poll forecasts. Singapore Airlines said on Dec. 1 that its cargo unit had set aside $61.92 million in the current financial year as provision for an antitrust fine that it has agreed to pay the U.S. Department of Justice.

Challenges remain for the airline, analysts say. “As low-cost operators start to expand their networks into longer-haul destinations, we believe strong demand growth is unlikely. However, SIA is usually able to manage its costs better than its peers,”

Royal Bank of Scotland says in a note to clients. 3Q earnings are due after market close on Friday.

Source:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1107298/1/.html
SIA flights to Bali cancelled or delayed due to volcanic ash
By Jason Tan | Posted: 27 January 2011 1911 hrs

SINGAPORE : Several Singapore Airlines (SIA) flights to and from Bali have been cancelled and delayed because of volcanic ash from Mount Bromo in East Java.

Two Singapore Airlines flights were cancelled.

SQ 946 was scheduled to depart today at 4.30pm local time.

SQ 947 which was to leave Denpasar for Singapore at 8.05pm local time was also cancelled.

Meanwhile, two other flights were delayed.

SQ 948, scheduled to depart Singapore at 6.50pm on Thursday, is now scheduled to depart at 10.30am on Friday, January 28 instead.

SQ 941 was scheduled to depart Denpasar at 9.15am on Friday, but will now depart the same day at 2.10 pm.

SQ 948 will be a larger aircraft to accommodate customers whose flights are cancelled.

SIA said it will try to contact affected customers to arrange alternative flights.

Customers are also advised to check SIA's website for more details.

- CNA /ls

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Source:http://business.asiaone.com/Business/News/Office/Story/A1Story20110128-260786.html

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What it takes to be a Singapore Girl
Fri, Jan 28, 2011
AsiaOne

After five years of being away from the spotlight, the focus is back on the Singapore Girl.

The sarong kebaya-clad Singapore Girl, who has been synonymous with Singapore Airlines, is back to front a multi-million dollar advertising blitz premiering next week, with the 80's theme song Singapore Girl, You're A Great Way To Fly making a comeback as well.

After campaigns focusing on airplane hardware in the past few years, the airline has decided to bring back its iconic Girl, which has been around since 1972, as it knows it is its secret weapon. It had put ad campaigns focusing on her in the backseat after they switched ad agencies in 2007 - from its 35-year partner Batey, to American agency TBWA.

In the new ad, she will be seen flitting gracefully through iconic cities, with the commercial shot in places like India, Paris, and China.

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Source:http://business.asiaone.com/Business/News/Story/A1Story20110127-260666.html

SIA will remain a premium brand, says its new CEO
Fri, Jan 28, 2011
The Business Times

By Ven Sreenivasan

SINGAPORE - Despite increasing competition and cut-throat pricing in the industry, Singapore Airlines will remain true to its premium branding.

This was emphasised in no uncertain terms by the airline's new chief executive Goh Choon Phong.

'For avoidance of doubt, I should point out categorically that there will be no change to SIA's premium positioning, and no change to the fundamental values that drive SIA's success,' he said in his new year's message published in the airline's latest monthly newsletter, Outlook. 'Safety will always be our number one priority, coupled with a zealous focus on our customers.'

He reiterated that amid the fast evolving competitive landscape of the industry, the airline would push ahead with high-quality customer service, product innovation and leadership, and network connectivity.

Mr Goh - who previously ran SIA Cargo - took over the helm of the company on Jan 1 from Chew Choon Seng, who retired after 39 years in the company, including the last seven-and-a half as its CEO. He is now the chairman of the Singapore Exchange.

Meanwhile, Mr Goh has restructured the upper echelon of his management, placing senior vice-presidents Mak Swee Wah and Ng Chin Hwee as his top two men in the hierarchy, just below himself. Mr Mak oversees all commercial aspects of operations, while Mr Ng oversees human resource and operations.

The reiteration of SIA's premium positioning comes as the airline faces increasingly stiff competition, both regionally and globally.

On regional routes, the airline has been facing an onslaught from budget and discount regional carriers, which now account for a huge share of coach class travellers.

SIA's tickets can typically cost between 20 and 40 per cent more than those charged by some of these carriers, depending on routes and seat class.

On the international routes, it is now facing down competition from cash-rich and ambitious national carriers, especially from the Middle East, who have imitated SIA's proven model in an attempt to lure away the high yielding premium intercontinental market. This premium market is particularly important for Tier 1 carriers like SIA, as it can account for 40 per cent of income.

Mr Goh also noted that while the aviation industry has recovered nicely from the 2008 and 2009 slump, dangers still exist.

'With jet fuel prices above US$100 pbl, volatile currency markets, austerity drives in various European countries, and the stubbornly high unemployment rate in the US, 2011 will have its fair share of challenges and uncertainties.' SIA will unveil its third quarter results shortly.

This article was first published in The Business Times.

The making of Singapore Airlines 2011 ad campain Singapore Girl - SAN FRANCISCO
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The complete journey with Singapore Airlines' timeless icon unveils 5 February 2011.

Singapore Air Net Income Falls 29% on Cargo Fines, Lags Analyst Estimates

By Chan Sue Ling - Jan 28, 2011 5:50 PM GMT+0800

Singapore Airlines Ltd., reported a worse-than- estimated 29 percent drop in third-quarter profit after it booked charges relating to antitrust cargo fines.

Net income declined to S$288.3 million ($225 million) in the three months ended December from S$404 million a year earlier, the carrier said in a statement to the Singapore stock exchange today. Profit was expected to be S$299 million, based on the average of six analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Singapore Air made a provision of S$199 million for the fines.

The carrier flew fewer passengers and filled a smaller proportion of seats as budget airlines Jetstar and Tiger Airways Holdings Ltd. lured away cost-conscious travelers. New Chief Executive Officer Goh Choon Phong also faces renewed competition from Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. and Middle East carriers for lucrative premium fliers.

Singapore Air has lagged behind compared with regional peers,” Kelvin Lau, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research Pte, said before the earnings. “They need to focus on improving their margins and work harder on the traffic side.”

Singapore Air was unchanged at S$15.04 at the close of trading today. The stock rose 2.4 percent last year, while the 15-member of the Bloomberg Asia-Pacific Airlines Index surged 28 percent. The results were released after the market closed.

SIA Versus Cathay

Passenger yield, the average price a traveler pays to fly one kilometer, was 12.1 Singapore cents in the quarter compared with 10.5 cents a year earlier. The carrier flew 4.37 million passengers in the three months ended December, 0.9 percent fewer than a year before. It filled 79.7 percent of its total available seats, down from 82.4 percent.

The decline in passenger numbers contrasts with Cathay Pacific, which reported increases every month in the quarter. The Hong Kong-based carrier is also rolling out new business- class cabins in a bid to win more executive travelers. Dubai- based Emirates Airline is challenging Singapore Air as it builds up a fleet of 90 Airbus SAS A380s.

Singapore Air’s advance passenger bookings for the quarter ending in March are “leveling off,” the carrier said in its outlook. Growth in air cargo is also expected to slow, it said.

The carrier made the provision after the European Union imposed a fine last year on its freight unit for coordinating fuel and security surcharges.

Cargo Fines

While the carrier accepted the plea offer made by the United States Department of Justice, it is appealing fines imposed by the European Commission and the South Korean Fair Trade Commission and intends to contest the charges, it said in today’s statement.

The airline’s spending on fuel, its biggest expense, climbed 8 percent to S$1.11 billion in the quarter.

Goh, who took over as Singapore Air CEO on Jan. 1, faces low-cost competition from Qantas Airways Ltd.’s Jetstar, which operates a hub in the city-state and plans to boost Asia capacity 30 percent this year. Tiger Air, also based in Singapore and parted-owned by Singapore Air, today said profit jumped 60 percent in the quarter ended December to S$22.6 million.

Singapore Air “is unlikely to shrug off the challenges of the Gulf and low-cost airlines any time soon,” Andrew Orchard, an analyst at Royal Bank of Scotland Plc, wrote in a Jan. 19 report. “As low-cost operators start to expand their networks into longer-haul destinations, we believe strong demand growth is unlikely.”

The making of Singapore Airlines 2011 ad campain Singapore Girl - PARIS
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The complete journey with Singapore Airlines' timeless icon unveils 5 February 2011.

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The making of Singapore Airlines 2011 ad campain Singapore Girl - JAISALMER INDIA
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The complete journey with Singapore Airlines' timeless icon unveils 5 February 2011.

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Was the second one taken in Japan?

SQ Boeing 747-412

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SQ Boeing 777-212/ER

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SQ Boeing 777-312

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SQ Boeing 777-312/ER

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SQ Airbus 380-841

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The making of Singapore Airlines 2011 ad campain Singapore Girl - WU ZHEN CHINA
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The complete journey with Singapore Airlines' timeless icon unveils 5 February 2011.

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Was the second one taken in Japan?

Nope. It was taken at Domodedovo Airport Moscow.:cheers:

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nice pictures

nice pictures

Thank you.:cheers:

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Fire on SQ Airbus A380: extinguishers deployed


A Singapore Airlines A380 crew set off an emergency fire extinguisher system after smoke was reported in a lavatory on a flight from Hong Kong to Singapore.

The superjumbo, reported to be the eighth plane manufactured and Singapore's fourth aircraft, landed safely after the incident. There were no reports of injuries among passengers or crew. Remains of the fire were later discovered in the forward cargo hold of the A380.

Australian Business Traveller spoke to a Singapore Airlines spokesperson this afternoon, who told us:

"The crew of a Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 operating to Singapore from Hong Kong on 31 January reported smells of smoke in a lavatory while the aircraft was on its descent. As a precaution a halon extinguisher was discharged by the crew. The aircraft landed without incident at Singapore."

The spokesperson continued: "Ground crews later found signs of burns to electrical wiring in the forward cargo hold. Singapore Airlines and Airbus are currently carrying out an investigation."

While not a serious emergency, Airbus and airlines must be concerned about the latest in a series of problems with the A380.

Qantas still has no schedule for repairing the A380 that was damaged when a Rolls-Royce engine exploded while taking off from Singapore last November. Qantas was only able to return the A380 to its trans-Pacific routes to Los Angeles from Sydney and Melbourne in January this year.

Major Airbus rival Boeing won't take much consolation in this, though: its own newest aircraft, the 787, had to be evacuated via the emergency slides in Laredo, Texas. The 787 fire -- which forced the entire 787 test fleet to be grounded, with the last test plane returning to duty just yesterday.

http://www.ausbt.com.au/fire-on- ... inguishers-deployed

Source:http://www.thesundaily.com/article.cfm?id=57164
Singapore Airlines A380s all cleared after smoke smell incident

SINGAPORE (Feb 3, 2011): Singapore Airlines on Thursday said its fleet of 11 Airbus A380s had all been cleared after earlier this week burn marks were found on wiring on one of the superjumbos after the crew detected the smell of smoke in a toilet during a flight.

On January 31, the crew of a flight from Hong Kong noticed the smell and activated the fire extinguisher shortly before the A380 landed safely in Singapore.

However, the crew reported that no fire was to be seen.

All A380 aircraft had been inspected and "nothing was found," said a Singapore Airlines spokesman, adding that the superjumbos were all in service.

The incident came after an A380 of Australia's Qantas airline was forced into an emergency landing in Singapore in November after one of its engines caught fire.

Separately, Singapore Airlines confirmed that on January 29 flight SQ328 bound for Munich, operated with a Boeing aircraft, had to return to Singapore after crew reported smoke in the cabin coming from air conditioning vents.

"The aircraft landed without incident at Singapore and an aircraft change was carried out," airline spokesman Nicholas Ionides said in an email statement.

He said investigations had been taking place, but did not elaborate.

A German passenger on board the flight said that shortly after take-off there had been smoke in the cabin and all lights went out.

"It was completely dark," Soenke Nohns told the German Press Agency dpa.

He said the smoke smelled of "exhaust fumes," but that no fire was to be seen.

About 30 minutes after its departure the aircraft returned safely to Singapore, said Nohns, adding that three hours later all passengers boarded another plane to Munich. -dpa

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A380 ECONOMY CLASS
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SINGAPORE AIRLINES 2011 COMMERCIAL - ACROSS THE WORD WITH THE SINGAPORE GIRL
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SQ AT BEIJING CAPITAL INTERNATIONAL AIRORT
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Source:http://theedgesingapore.com/the-daily-edge/business/25774-sia-price-fixing-plea-accepted-by-judge.html
SIA price fixing plea accepted by judge
Written by Bloomberg
Wednesday, 09 February 2011 08:15

Singapore Airlines Cargo will pay a US$48 million criminal fine as part of a price-fixing plea that was accepted by a US judge.

The unit of Singapore Airlines, the world’s second-largest airline by market value, pleaded guilty today in federal court in Washington to conspiring with air cargo companies to fix rates on international shipments. US District Judge John Bates accepted the plea and proposed penalty, which was announced by the Justice Department in November.
“This antitrust offense involves significant misconduct in the marketplace,” said Bates, adding that the fine being imposed is “at the top of the guideline range.”

The plea is part of the department’s investigation into the air-cargo industry. Including Singapore Airlines, 21 airlines and 19 executives have been charged and more than US$1.7 billion in fines have been levied, according to the Justice Department.

Other airlines that have agreed to pay fines in the investigation are Polar Air Cargo LLC, a unit of Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings Inc.; Air France-KLM Group; Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd.; SAS Cargo Group A/S and Martinair Holland NV, a unit of KLM.

Singapore Airlines Cargo pleaded guilty to a single felony count of conspiracy to restrain trade. The department filed the one-count felony charge in federal court on Nov 30 accusing the company of helping fix prices between 2002 and 2006. Bates said the value of affected commerce was US$85.6 million.

Is there anychance of seeing any of Silk Air's planes painted into SQ livery? I would love to see an SQ babybus!

^^ I don't think SIA will do that:)

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Source:http://sg.yfittopostblog.com/2011/02/14/bridal-gowns-considered-a-security-risk-on-flights/

Bridal gowns considered a security risk on flights?
By Alicia Wong – February 14th, 2011

A letter writer complains to Australian media about Singapore Airlines.

A couple travelling on Singapore Airlines (SIA) to Abu Dhabi to get married were apparently refused assistance with the wedding dress, according to a letter sent to Australian media.

According to the letter-writer, Robyn Lewis, mother of the bride, the couple contacted SIA before they left Australia to request for a small area to hang the dress, which was in a travel bag.

“My daughter was told it could be a security risk and was not given any hope of a place to hang the dress. At check-in and again on the plane they were refused any assistance with the dress,” she wrote in the letter.

She said, the dress was “small with no hoops and weighed almost nothing”.

“Consequently, the dress arrived in a poor state and required drycleaning to restore it to its pre-departure condition,” she said.

When contacted, SIA told AsiaOne it was unable to comment on the incident as it had not received any complaints. The airline urged the complainant to contact them and provide them with more details.

Source:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/1110889/1/.html
SIA's passenger carriage up in January
Posted: 15 February 2011 1746 hrs

SINGAPORE : Singapore Airlines recorded a 2.9 per cent on-year growth in passenger carriage in January.

The number of passengers carried rose to 1.44 million, up 3.2 per cent from the same month the previous year, SIA said in a statement.

The carrier's passenger load factor fell 1 percentage point to 78.1 per cent as capacity grew 4.2 per cent.

All regions except Americas and Europe recorded increases in passenger load factors in January compared to a year ago.

SIA attributed the declines for the American and European regions to a reduction in lower-fare promotional traffic compared to the same period last year.

The airline added capacity to several destinations, including Manchester (via Munich), and Houston (via Moscow), Osaka and Seoul.

A new double-daily service to Tokyo-Haneda was launched on 31 October 2010, complementing the existing twice-daily services to Tokyo-Narita.

Meanwhile, overall cargo traffic improved by 12.5 per cent, while cargo capacity increased by 10.1 per cent. This led to an improvement in cargo load factor of 1.3 percentage points.

The cargo load factor improved for all regions except East Asia, which registered a 4.9 percentage point decline as cargo traffic did not keep pace with capacity increases.

Overall, SIA filled 67.9 per cent of the space available on its planes for passengers and cargo in January. This was slightly lower than the 68.2 per cent achieved in January last year.

- CNA/al

Is there anychance of seeing any of Silk Air's planes painted into SQ livery? I would love to see an SQ babybus!

Heres an old SQ A310 (SQ NOW ONLY FLIES WIDE BODY AIRCRAFTS):):
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A310 was wide-body. All Airbuses are widebodies except the A320 family (318-321).

^^
Opps my mistake.:)

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Source:http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_635853.html
Feb 17, 2011
American fined for being drunk on plane
By Elena Chong

AN AMERICAN passenger who became drunk on board a Singapore Airlines flight from Dubai to Singapore was fined $2,000 on Thursday.

Events manager Michael David Mitchell, 41, admitted to the offence under the Air Navigation Order at about 3am on Feb 9.

A court heard that he was scheduled to transit in Singapore before departing for Australia the same day.

He admitted taking a sleeping pill after having three glasses of wine, as he wanted to rest during the flight from Dubai to Singapore. He could not recall what had happened subsequently.

He could have been fined up to $20,000.

It is an offence for a person to enter any aircraft when drunk, or be drunk

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Source:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1112056/1/.html
Cracked windshield forces SIA plane to land
Posted: 21 February 2011 1245 hrs

SINGAPORE: A Singapore Airlines plane bound for Melbourne had to turn back to Changi Airport early Monday morning.

An SIA spokesman told MediaCorp that about one hour after its take-off, Flight SQ237 flew back to Singapore after a crack formed on the first officer's windshield.

The aircraft, a Boeing 747-400, departed Singapore at 11.52pm (23:52 local time) on February 20 and touched down at Singapore at 2.43am.

An aircraft change was carried out and the flight left Singapore for Melbourne at 4.42am Monday morning.

- CNA/fa

Source:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1112308/1/.html
SIA delays flight to Christchurch
By Timothy Ouyang / Wayne Chan | Posted: 22 February 2011 1653 hrs

SINGAPORE: Singapore Airlines said it is delaying its flight from Singapore to Christchurch on Tuesday evening.

SQ297, which was scheduled to depart at 7.45pm, is now delayed till Wednesday.

More details of the rescheduled flight will be released on Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, SQ298 from Christchurch landed safely in Singapore at 4.51pm.

The flight, carrying 242 passengers, departed Christchurch at 11.50am local time, an hour before the earthquake struck New Zealand's second largest city.

At Changi Airport Terminal 3, some of the 220 passengers meant to board the postponed SQ 297 flight to Christchurch, arrived only to face the bad news.

Some, like 69-year-old seafood exporter John Hartnell, anxiously tried to contact relatives back home.

"I can't contact my wife because all the telephones are out. Mobiles are not working as well so communication is impossible. So I am trying to get back to her as fast as I can. I don't think even Singapore Airlines knows exactly what damage has occurred. Whether it's runways or controls or what. So from that point of view, we're in the dark," he said.

Others, like 33-year-old Christopher Lee from the UK, expressed concern for those in Christchurch.

"The airport's been closed from what I understand as a lot of people are being re-routed...these guys (SIA and airport staff) have been fantastically helpful. My whole experience in Singapore has been very efficient...at the end of the day, there's a lot of people in an awful lot more trouble than we are with a few missed flights," he said.

SIA said on its website that it will waive administrative fees for refund, re-booking or re-routing of tickets.

This is for customers holding confirmed tickets issued on or before February 22 2011, for travel to and from Christchurch from February 22 to March 6. The waiver also applies to KrisFlyer redemption tickets.

SIA added that it will continue to closely monitor the situation and will provide constant updates. It will also arrange accommodation for affected passengers here.

The carrier advises customers to check its website regularly.

SIA also said it expects disruptions to its operations in Christchurch.

The airport in Christchurch has been shut after the earthquake struck the city earlier on Tuesday.

SIA operates a daily flight between Singapore and Christchurch and also flies to Auckland 12 times a week.

Singapore's Foreign Affairs Ministry said it has not received any reports of Singaporeans affected by the quake but is also closely monitoring the situation in Christchurch.

-CNA/ac

Source:http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/306001/singapore-airlines-fly-7-times-daily-hong-kong
Singapore Airlines to fly 7 times daily to Hong Kong
February 23, 2011, 11:35pm

Singapore Airlines announced the addition of a seventh daily flight between Singapore and Hong Kong, making the territory its busiest point outside of Singapore, with 56 outbound flights weekly (including flights departing Hong Kong for San Francisco).

The new service will commence on 27 March 2011. SQ890, operated by a Boeing 777-200ER aircraft, will depart Singapore at 0735hrs and arrive in Hong Kong at 1120hrs. The return flight, SQ891, will depart Hong Kong at 1230hrs and arrive in Singapore at 1610hrs.

Customers will have an even wider range of flight timings to choose from, with seven flights within a 12-hour period departing from both Singapore and Hong Kong. For the full schedule, please refer to the table on the next page.

“We are grateful for the continued support of our customers on this popular route and are delighted that we now have the opportunity to offer both business and leisure travellers an additional choice of flight timings,” said Executive Vice President Commercial Mr Mak Swee Wah.

With the new service, Singapore Airlines will be offering 2,151 seats per day between Singapore and Hong Kong, up from 1,847 previously.

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Source:http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_640099.html
Mar 1, 2011
Pay for SIA flights using PayPal
By Linette Lin

SINGAPORE Airlines customers in the United States, Singapore and five other Asia-Pacific countries and territories can now pay for their flights with PayPal on singaporeair.com.

This facility will progressively be made available to the Airline's customers in up to 17 countries, making this the largest collaboration between PayPal and an Asian carrier to date.

After booking Singapore Airlines flights online, travellers can now pay for tickets using their PayPal account in as few as three clicks and without the need to retype their credit card or financial details.

Besides using their online balance, PayPal users can pay for their Singapore Airlines flights from their bank accounts, credit cards or debit cards that are linked to their PayPal account.

Because PayPal doesn't share its users' financial information, this increases the security of the online transaction and protects privacy of users.

More marketing promotion deals: www.paypal.com/sg/sia.

Source:http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia/Story/STIStory_640112.html
Mar 1, 2011
SilkAir launches Pekanbaru-Singapore route

JAKARTA - SINGAPOREAN airline SilkAir launched on Monday regular flight services between Changi International Airport with Sultan Syarif Kasim II Airport in Pekanbaru, Riau, the airline said in a press statement on Monday.

The inaugural flight, MI 252, departed Changi Airport at 9.30am and arrived at Sultan Syarif Kassim II an hour later.

The new thrice-weekly service between Singapore and Riau's provincial capital - with over 700 seats per week on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday - will provide a further boost to Pekanbaru's trade and tourism, to meet growing demand for more international travel to and from the city, SilkAir said.

SilkAir's chief executive Marvin Tan, who was on the inaugural flight, joined the local authorities and special guests, including Riau Governor H.M Rusli, in celebrating the first flight.

SilkAir, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, currently operates Airbus A320 and A319 narrow body airplanes. -- THE JAKARTA POST/ANN

Source:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_singapore/view/1114124/1/.html
SIA discovers A380 engine leaks
Posted: 03 March 2011 1458 hrs

SINGAPORE: Singapore Airlines (SIA) said Thursday it had discovered five cases of oil leaks on the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines on its Airbus A380 planes, but insisted the planes were safe to fly.

SIA said the leaks were minor and did not pose any safety issues on the flights.

"It is correct that we have had five cases of oil leaks on Trent 900 engines but there was no safety of flight issue on any of those occasions," a spokesman with the airline said in a statement to AFP.

"The issue that caused the leaks was identified and corrected. They were minor and we never needed to reduce power during flight."

He said some of the leaks were discovered after a Qantas A380 plane made an emergency landing in Singapore in November last year due to a mid-air engine explosion, while the others were found before that incident.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said in a report that the blast on the Qantas aircraft could have been caused by a possible manufacturing issue related to oil pipes on the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine.

The Australian safety watchdog said the problem could lead to fatigue cracking, oil leakage and potential engine failure from an oil fire.

Last month, Qantas estimated it had suffered an A$80 million (US$81.1 million) financial hit from November's blast and resultant aircraft groundings. It said it was still discussing compensation with the British engine-maker.

SIA carried out engine checks on its own A380 fleet after the Qantas incident.

Shukor Yusof, an aviation analyst at Standard and Poor's Asia Equity Research, said the leaks would have minimal impact on SIA.

"I don't see any major technical difficulties with what has happened to those engines because as we all know, Singapore Airlines has a very stringent maintenance programme," Shukor told AFP.

"They will make sure everything is in perfect order before they fly those aircraft."

SIA shares closed at S$13.44, up 10 cents, or 0.75 per cent, from the previous day.

SIA is the first airline in the world to fly the A380 and now has 11 of the massive aircraft in service, with another eight on order.

-AFP/jl

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Source:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/1115333/1/.html
SIA, SilkAir impose higher fuel surcharges
Posted: 09 March 2011 1748 hrs

SINGAPORE : Singapore Airlines (SIA) Wednesday said it was hiking fuel surcharges for the second time this year due to skyrocketing jet fuel costs.

The surcharge increases of "between $2 and $26" depending on distance and class of travel, will be levied from next Thursday on SIA flights as well as regional wing SilkAir's, the airline said in a press statement.

"Singapore Airlines will increase its fuel surcharge for tickets issued on or after 17 March 2011, as a result of the continued escalation in the price of jet fuel," it stated.

"The price of jet fuel is now above $130 per barrel, which is the highest in two years."

SIA's latest surcharge hike was its second this year after it raised rates in January due to escalating oil prices, and its third since December 2, 2010 when jet fuel surged above $95 per barrel.

Prior to December, the last increase was in June 2008.

There were three fuel surcharge cuts - in September and November 2008 and in February 2009.

"The adjustments will offer only partial relief from the higher operating costs arising from increases in the price of jet fuel," the airline said.

"Singapore Airlines will continue to closely monitor the price of fuel and keep surcharges under constant review."

Standard & Poor's Equity Research Aviation analyst Shukor Yusof said SIA had little option other than to raise fuel surcharges to offset the effect of escalating jet fuel costs.

"The continual rise in oil prices are now at a stage where they are threatening the financial health of most airlines if not all. If you look at jet fuel prices, it has exceeded a level that most airlines can contain," he told AFP.

"So the implication pretty much is that in order to remain profitable and in order to be solvent, I think airlines have very little choice other than to impose fuel surcharges."

Shukor added that SIA would be hit especially hard should jet fuel prices continue to rise due to its fleet of large planes, which consume more fuel.

"If it goes on climbing higher and higher, than its going to be tough for airlines, especially SIA which runs a fleet of wide-body aircraft," he said.

SIA's operating fleet as of December 31, 2010 comprised 109 passenger aircraft, including 11 A380 superjumbos, its third-quarter earnings report released in January stated.

The airline had in the report said rising jet fuel costs, along with US, European Union and South Korean antitrust fines were a major factor dragging down its third-quarter earnings.

Jet fuel prices had also been the company's biggest expense during the October-December quarter, it said.

SIA's net profit in the period fell 29 percent to S$288.3 million ($225.30 million), down from S$403.7 million a year earlier.

Crude prices were mixed in late Asian trade Monday as traders tracked the supply situation amid ongoing unrest in Libya and awaited energy inventory data in the US.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for April delivery, fell 19 cents to $104.83 per barrel while Brent North Sea crude for delivery in April gained 59 cents to $113.65.

- AFP/ch

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Singapore is about to start its new route to South America.

The first flight will arrive in March, 28th in São Paulo, Brazil.

Source:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1115814/1/.html

SIA diverts two flights en-route to Tokyo
By Timothy Ouyang | Posted: 11 March 2011 1655 hrs

SINGAPORE: Singapore Airlines says two of its flights en-route to Tokyo have been diverted due to the closure of Narita Airport, following the massive earthquake and tsunami which hit the north-east of Japan this afternoon.

The carrier says, flight SQ12 which took off from Singapore at about 9.45am, will be diverted to Fukuoka in southern Japan instead.

The flight was originally scheduled to land at Tokyo's Narita International Airport at about 5pm local time - but it had to be diverted, after the 8.9 magnitude earthquake that hit Japan earlier today forced several airport closures.

Separately, flight SQ11 from Los Angeles to Narita will be diverted to Haneda Airport.

The flight is expected to reach Haneda just before 6pm Japan time.

SIA has another flight, SQ 634, scheduled to leave Singapore at 3.40pm for Haneda.

Some Singaporeans working in the city of Yokohama felt the tremors.

29-year-old Mr Abel Li is on work attachment in the city, with two other colleagues.

Mr Li was in a Yokohama factory office at the time of the earthquake.

"The tremours lasted more than two minutes before everybody was given the signal for everybody to evacuate and everybody went down to the assembly area, for the next hour, there were some minor after shocks", said Mr Li.

Yokohama wasn't hit by the tsunami.

Some travel agencies have Singaporean tour groups in Japan.

CTC Travel said it has three groups totalling 130 people, two in Tokyo and another in Hokkaido.

It says it has established that members of the three groups are safe.

Chan Brothers said its six tour groups of 160 people across Japan are not affected by the quake.

It also has a group leaving for Hokkaido via Tokyo tonight.

A spokesman said they're waiting for updates and will re-route if Narita Airport remains closed.

- CNA/cc

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Source:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/1116690/1/.html
SIA's passenger load drops to 75.1% in February
By Ryan Huang | Posted: 15 March 2011 2206 hrs

SINGAPORE : Singapore Airlines has reported a 4.8 percentage point drop in its passenger load factor in February compared with the same period last year.

Last month, passenger load factor was at 75.1 per cent, down from 79.9 per cent a year ago.

The decline came despite a 0.6 per cent increase in the number of passengers to 1.27 million.

Capacity was added to several destinations, including Manchester, Houston, Osaka and Seoul.

All regions saw a decline in passenger load factors, except East China, which was flat.

Overall, for both passengers and cargo, SIA filled 66.9 per cent of the space available on its planes in February, down 4.5 percentage points from the same period a year ago.

- CNA/al

Source:http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/rss/1059954/Singapore-Airlines-cuts-fuel-costs-converting-magazines-digital/
Katherine Levy, 15 March 2011, 11:05am
Singapore Airlines cuts fuel costs by converting magazines to digital
Singapore Airlines has implemented digital versions of its in-flight magazines in a bid to reduce fuel costs, according to international magazine body Fipp.

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Singapore Airlines: cuts fuel costs by converting magazines to digital

Singapore Airlines has abandoned the paper version of three of its in-flight titles on two of its Boeing 777-300 ER carriers.

The airline has worked with SmartPapers Aviation to replicate the content of its magazines as digital-only products, available on screens on the back of airline seats.

Magazines SilverKris, KrisShop and KrisWorld are all available as digital-only versions on these two planes, Fipp's Innovations in Magazines 2011 World Report says.

The publications are high-resolution and passengers are able to choose their own font as well as search the title’s contents by keyword.

According to Fipp, airlines can save $440,000 (£274,641) a year for every 11.5 kilograms of paper weight eliminated from the aircraft.

The report shows how airlines such as Air France and Delta, who are currently considering making lighter seats to reduce fuel costs, could consider repackaging their in-flight reading material to deliver savings.

According to Fipp, Singapore Airlines is considering rolling out digital versions of its magazines on more planes, and will adapt 100 international and local magazines usually carried in the cabins for digital screens.

The airline is also understood to be exploring the possibility of converting other paper products, such as menu cards, to digital.

Jeffrey O'Rourke, chief executive of Ink Publishing, which publishes a range of in-flight magazines for clients including easyJet, Ryanair, KLM and bmibaby, said: "It's not something we focus on as we don't think it's a big channel.

"IV technology (the screen technology on planes) is not there yet. We sell advertising on IV systems in front of movies but we're not trying to replicate magazines on them."

Singapore Airlines was unavailable to comment.

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Tell me it ain't so! Reading magazines on the screen?? That is absolutely lame.

Source:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1117331/1/.html
SIA ups capacity of flights to Tokyo Haneda
Posted: 18 March 2011 1602 hrs

SINGAPORE: Starting on Saturday till March 21, Singapore Airlines will be operating larger capacity 777-300 aircraft for flight SQ633 from Tokyo Haneda to Singapore, to cater to increased demand.

The larger aircraft will take 332 passengers, about 50 more than the current Boeing 777-300ER.

The flight will depart Tokyo Haneda at 12.30am and make a stop-over at Seoul Incheon at 2.30am, before departing an hour later. It will arrive in Singapore at 9.05am.

This stop-over is to enable a change of crews as SIA's crew operating the flight have been moved to Seoul Incheon due to fears of aftershocks in Tokyo.

There are also changes to the timings for SQ638 on March 16 and March 22, which operates from Singapore to Tokyo Narita.

It will now depart later from Singapore at 3.00am instead of 12 midnight, and arrive in Narita at 10.35am instead of 7.30am. This means the ground time in Tokyo will be reduced by about 3 hours.

There is no change to the departure time of the flight out from Narita back to Singapore, SQ637, which is 11.30am.

From March 17 through March 22, flights SQ12 and SQ11 between Singapore and Los Angeles via Tokyo Narita will also make an additional stop at Osaka Kansai airport.

SIA says this is to ensure that its crew have sufficient rest, as aftershocks are still being experienced in Tokyo.

The flight details and timings are as follows: SQ12 will depart Singapore at 9.45am, arriving in Narita at 5.20pm. It will depart Narita at 6.30pm, arriving in Osaka at 7.40pm. It will then depart Osaka at 8.40pm, arriving in Los Angeles at 2.00pm.

SQ11 will depart Los Angeles at 3.45pm, arriving in Narita at 7.25pm the following day, before departing Narita at 8.35pm, arriving in Osaka at 9.45pm. It will then depart Osaka at 10.45pm, arriving in Singapore at 4.45am the following day.

In addition, SIA is postponing the introduction of Airbus A380 services on flights SQ12 and SQ11 between Singapore and Los Angeles via Tokyo Narita until further notice. The flights will continue to be operated with Boeing 747-400 aircraft.

-CNA/ac

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Source:http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_647520.html
Mar 21, 2011
Drunk passenger jailed 16 months for bomb threat
By Elena Chong

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Eduard Gerard Jacobus (not pictured) was jailed for 16 months for threatening to blow up the Singapore Airlines plane he was on. -- ST FILE PHOTO: MUGILAN RAJASEGARAN

A DUTCHMAN was jailed for 16 months on Monday for uttering a bomb threat on board a Singapore Airlines plane and kicking a cabin crew member.

Eduard Gerard Jacobus, 37, a dredge operator, pleaded guilty to uttering the words 'terrorist', 'bomb', 'blow up the plane' and threatening to blow up the aircraft on the Perth-bound flight that was taxiing to the runway at Changi Airport last Sep 29.

A Community Court heard that Jacobus, a transit passenger, was very drunk when he uttered the bomb threat. He had stood up and was gesticulating.

A cabin crew tried to calm him down and get him back in his seat when Jacobus kicked him.

The aircraft returned to the departure gate. The rest of the passengers disembarked and were subjected to another round of pre-board screening

The plane eventually took off after a four-hour delay.

Source:http://www.skyscrapercity.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=74690511
Singapore Airlines suspends flights to Haneda as demand weakens after quake
By Wayne Chan | Posted: 21 March 2011 1941 hrs

SINGAPORE: Singapore Airlines (SIA) said Monday that it is suspending two out of four flights operating between Singapore and Haneda, due to the weakening demand following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

SIA said Flights SQ635 and SQ636 will be suspended from March 27.

It added that customers booked on these flights will be contacted and put on other flights to or from Tokyo.

However, SQ633 and SQ634, which fly daily between Singapore and Haneda, will continue to operate.

- CNA/cc

Source:http://www.wallstreet-online.de/nachricht/3122737-dhl-partners-with-singapore-airlines-to-deliver-in-flight-amenities-globally
DHL Partners with Singapore Airlines to Deliver In-Flight Amenities Globally
Autor: PR Newswire (engl.) | 24.03.2011, 07:00

SINGAPORE, March 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- DHL Global Forwarding Singapore, the freight forwarding arm of DHL, the world´s leading logistics company, in Singapore, has been awarded a prestigious business win with Singapore Airlines. As the provider of choice for Singapore Airlines, DHL will manage global transportation of all in-flight amenities from Singapore Airlines - mainly through its distribution hubs in China, Germany and Singapore - to all of its network destinations and offices in the world. The contract covers both ocean freight and air freight services.

As part of the contract, DHL will also provide all inland transportation services to Singapore Airlines´ China and Germany hubs through its Supply Chain unit. The operations commenced as of 15 January, at Singapore Airlines´ hub in Singapore, and are expected to roll out in China and Germany in April and May, respectively.

Commenting on the win, Sam Ang, CEO, Southeast Asia, DHL Global Forwarding, said: "This is a prestigious win for DHL and we look forward to bringing our worldwide logistics and international knowledge and expertise to this project. We are confident that DHL can help Singapore Airlines deliver reduced costs and enhanced logistics efficiency, in order to meet global passenger demands. We are very excited about this partnership with Singapore Airlines, one of the leading airlines in the world, as this contract further reinforces our footing in international aviation logistics."

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Source:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/1119226/1/.html
SIA starts flights to Sao Paulo
Posted: 28 March 2011 1342 hrs

SINGAPORE: Singapore Airlines (SIA) has started its first direct flight to Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Flight SQ68 departed early Monday morning on its inaugural flight from Singapore Changi Airport to Sao Paulo's Guarulhos International Airport via the Spanish city of Barcelona.

Sao Paulo is SIA's first destination in South America, which has become the sixth continent in its route network.

SIA said the new three-times-weekly service also strengthens Changi Airport's status as a global hub, as SIA is the first to offer direct flights between Singapore and South America.

SIA is confident that travel demand to Brazil will be strong, with such high-profile events as the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games lined up in Brazil.

Similarly, it hopes that Brazilians will take the opportunity to visit Singapore and use Changi Airport as a gateway to the Asia-Pacific region.

- CNA/ir

SIA arrived in São Paulo, Brazil, its first destination in Latin America.

Welcome Singapore!

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