Canberra woos Singapore Airlines

[flying.monkeyz]

In its ongoing quest to attract direct international services, a delegation from Canberra has held meetings with Singapore Airlines and its owner, the Singapore government, to attract the carrier to the region.

Continue reading at http://australianaviation.com.au/201...pore-airlines/

[jammed]

Much as I will like this to happen like tomorrow, as I continue to fly SIN-CBR via SYD or MEL every 2-3 mths, I just don't see the commercial weight for SQ to do this. Apart from civil servants and diplomats from various embassies in CBR, and they don't fly everyday or even week, how many more pax to fill a daily A333? I had suggested to Barr et al that CBR shd lower landing fees, offer discounted hotels for airline crew and inbound tourists frm SIN as a start-up lure, but I don't see CBR businesses rallying together to make this happen. Fingers crossed nevertheless

[SQ228]

It sounds like a nice concept but CBR would be a scheduler's nightmare because the traffic patterns are so uneven. A service that flew out on a Friday evening would probably do well, but nobody much would be flying into CBR on a Friday morning. Then there is the impact of parliamentary sitting patterns which drives so much of the demand for hotels and conference services.

This is a problem for domestic capacity too. Most planes fly half-empty in one direction and packed full in the other as there is very little counter-balance. CBR is unlikely to ever become an international tourist destination and especially not while it offers such an array of dull business hotels and run-down motor inns. It has quite a good offering of restaurants compared to what it used to, but to the uninitiated they are hard to find.

But having said all that, maybe there are enough residents of CBR who want to fly to Asia and Europe each day who would jump at the chance of a direct service? They could try a 3x weekly for 6 months and see how it goes.

[LOWJHG]

Whilst I appreciate the pro activity of CBR to woo SQ to fly here, I am skeptical of how successful it would be. The Singapore embassy here has less than 20 staff on roster, and the Singapore community here is small, unlike the other Aussie destinations they fly to. Being a direct service also poses a risk to my travel patterns as well, rather than being booked to travel via BNE in premium economy, I may be booked on the direct on economy instead, effectively shunting me off OW and QF. I do have to agree though, if SQ decides to fly here it does open up some interesting award opportunities for *A redemption.

[Kyo]

If only MI could take on this exotic route

[RCTP]

If only MI could take on this exotic route

Not sure I'll be able to tahan such a long flight in MI's Y cabin..

[SilverChris]

If another Australian destination is going to be served I have my money on Cairns.

[SQ228]

If another Australian destination is going to be served I have my money on Cairns.

I could definitely see Cairns as a potential Scoot destination. Perfect for tourists headed to Northern Queensland. Would it be within the range of MI?

I can't see any other Australian destinations becoming reality for SQ though because our population is just too centralised in major cities. The risk of half-empty flights for most of the week is too great when they already have a codeshare set up with VA to towns all across the country. Some of the Australian towns listed in the PDF timetable have populations under 1000 and most Australians wouldn't even know where they were!

[scooby5]

If an Australian carrier isn't going to do Canberra, why the hell should anybody else?

[SilverChris]

Would it be within the range of MI?

SIN-CNS is 3000 miles. Doubt an A320 can make it, not sure about the A319. Even if it is doable I wouldn't fancy spending 6 hours without AVOD on a narrowbody

[Russ]

Singapore - Alice Springs - Canberra on an A320....

[Sethor]

Could be viable, Canberra has a reasonable population of 400,000 plus maybe another 100,000 in the surrounding area. Government travel should have no issue filling up the pointy end. Also having a direct CBR-SIN service can cut one leg off passengers travelling CBR-Europe. Should be good for at least a 3 weekly A333 service, I wonder if they will offer subsities/concessions to get a international service out of CBR.

[concept|infinit]

If they want SQ in CBR that much, why not let SQ do a domestic flight like MEL-CBR or SYD-CBR?

[Sethor]

If they want SQ in CBR that much, why not let SQ do a domestic flight like MEL-CBR or SYD-CBR?

SQ will already have codeshares with VA which cover those routes.