30 years to the day!

[MAN Flyer]

For the first SQ flight arriving at MAN.

It's 1 April in Singapore now, so why not...

Singapore Airlines Celebrates 30 years of flying from Manchester Airport

Manchester Airport’s Longest Serving Long-Haul Carrier

Today, 1st April, marks the 30th anniversary of the first scheduled Singapore Airlines flight touching down at Manchester Airport, with the flight having departed Singapore the night before. The milestone not only celebrates the carrier’s continuous service ever since – making it Manchester’s longest serving long-haul carrier – but also the success of a lengthy lobbying campaign that was required to permit its launch in the first place.

Over the last 30 years, neither side has looked back since; highlighting the airline’s commitment to the North West region, as Manchester remains the only hub outside London that the airline flies to in the UK.

In 1986, the flight was twice weekly, operated by a Boeing 747-300 Combi aircraft, Cliff Richard and the Young Ones were Number One in the UK Charts and Alex Ferguson was taking the reins at Manchester United for the first time – how times change. Since then, a total of five different Singapore Airlines aircraft types have plied the route, spending over 100,000 hours in the air and covering more than 50 million miles to allow customers to reach their chosen destinations.

Similarly, over the past thirty years Manchester Airport has gone from one runway and one terminal to two runways and three terminals, servicing 23.3m passengers (from 7.5m in 1986) and seeing 174,000 aircraft movements (from 80,367 in 1986) each year.

Today, Singapore Airlines operates a daily service, via Munich, using modern Boeing 777-300ER aircraft featuring the latest cabin interiors - including the new Premium Economy Class. This has helped both the airline’s European stopover point – Munich – and its more traditional destinations across SE Asia, Australia and New Zealand to prove popular with local customers.

With 30 years of history, comes 30 years of stories and Singapore Airlines has enjoyed some great times in Manchester over the years.

In the 1990s, a Singapore Airlines ‘Singapore Girl’ standee was featured in a handful of episodes of one of Manchester’s most famous exports – Coronation Street – after a casual chat with one of the cast. She featured on set within the travel agency that was located on the famous Cobbled Street at the time.

Additionally, the airline participated in a World Record Attempt for the longest distance take-away curry, when the Daily Sport Newspaper’s Manchester office ordered a vegetable biryani all the way from Christchurch, New Zealand! After 12,000 miles, 26 hours and around £300 later, the curry apparently reheated well to the enjoyment of the editorial staff!

Wilson Yong, General Manager UK & Ireland, Singapore Airlines, commented: “This anniversary marks 30 years of a great relationship with customers in the North of England, as well as our partners at Manchester Airport – both of whom we would like to thank for their long-standing support. We are lucky enough to have some staff that have shared all our memories along the way and even as we celebrate this fantastic milestone, we are already looking forward to creating even more history in the region over the years still to come”.

Ken O’Toole, Managing Director for Manchester Airport, said: “As our longest serving long haul carrier we’re pleased to be able to celebrate 30 years of service with Singapore Airlines.

They continue to offer the 23 million people in our catchment area a daily flight to Singapore with a modern cabin and world renowned service. As the only UK scheduled service to Singapore outside of London, it’s no surprise how popular they continue to be from Manchester Airport.

As the airport grows over the next 10 years, we hope Singapore Airlines are part of that growth.”

As part of celebrating the landmark anniversary, Singapore Airlines customers travelling today will be treated to special gifts and a celebratory cake at the gate. For customers missing out on the anniversary flight, the airline has a special Economy Class fare promotion this weekend. Travel Monday-Thursday between 11 April-31May, or 1st-30th November, 2016, to many of our popular destinations from Manchester; including Sydney and Brisbane in Australia, the island of Bali and Thailand’s popular Phuket. For full details and to book, visit singaporeair.com.

There is a Do for TA's tonight in the museum of Science & Industry.

[Dobbo]

Good article on SQ at MAN in business traveller.

http://www.businesstraveller.com/new...-at-manchester



Today Singapore Airlines celebrates its 30th anniversary on the Manchester-Singapore route

Back in 1986 SIA launched the route with a twice weekly B747-300ER service. Today it’s a daily service by B777-300ER which now goes via Munich.

At the time SIA’s Manchester service was a major development as the UK governmental restricted foreign airlines from operating air service to cities other than London.

It meant SIA became the first South East Asian airline to operate to a UK regional city. Traffic rights were only granted thanks to a lengthy lobbying campaign with the UK government.

And of course SIA was not simply about Singapore. SIA is a sixth-freedom airline and so many passengers from the North of England were using this airline to transit Singapore for elsewhere in Asia or Australasia.

That’s the positive news. On the negative side one might argue that SIA’s business in the North hasn’t expanded much since the Manchester route was launched. And for that you can blame the Gulf carriers all of whom are chasing the same transit market.

Back in 1986 both Etihad and Qatar Airways were unknown. Emirates (today’s largest international airline in terms of route mileage) was a humble regional airline with a handful of aircraft and routes.

So whereas SIA’s current daily service from Manchester might sound impressive to the uninitiated, its available capacity out of Manchester is small beer compared with its three Gulf rivals.

The latter operate multiple daily flights. Emirates alone flies three times a day with two of these services operated by A380 equipment.

True SIA’s B777-300ER is larger than the previous B777-200ER it replaced but a good number of passengers will be joining in Munich. It means that maybe only one third of the aircraft is filled ex-Manchester.

Initial warning signs for SIA appeared back in 2008. A combination of increased Gulf-airline competition plus the UK economic downturn prompted SIA to cut its then daily flight to a five times a week service. On the days when there was no service, SIA routed its Singapore-bound passengers via London Heathrow (using BA/Bmi for the domestic sector).

At the time it was believed to be the first time SIA (whose growth until then had been on an upwards curve) had reduced UK capacity.

By 2010, SIA’s Manchester service was down to thrice weekly flights. And some analysts suggested SIA might withdraw altogether from Manchester.

But then came the inspired decision to operate the route via Munich which allowed SIA to spread its risks. Initially flight frequency was five times a week but has now become daily.

What of the future? Airlines are cagey about discussing advance plans but SIA’s Manchester route appears to have settled down. Indeed one would expect a return to non-stop service in the coming years.

SIA has ordered several dozen wide-body A350s. These twin-jets are intended to replace the B777-200ERs on non-stop but less busy routes.

The A350s will initially serve Amsterdam and Dusseldorf and it can only be a matter of time before they are considered for Manchester too.

[Dobbo]

Some context on the above:

In 2015 SQ carried 108,950 PAX from MAN-SIN. This is up 5,998 from 2014 (102,962). Based on a daily frequency, this works out at roughly 150PAX per flight (i.e. 300 per day). Although It has not been used for the entire period under review, if it had been, a 4 class B77W (268 seats) you are looking at a load factor of around 56%.

Despite the serious competition faced by SQ (SIN is a top 10 Emirates route from MAN) and the relatively uncompetitive journey time and departure/connection options (in particular offering a two stop kangaroo service) SQ do pretty well from MAN, in particular, over half of the plane on the MUC-SIN sector is traveling from MAN-SIN (and beyond).

I would say that the if the route is decoupled, the stimulus provided by going non-stop SIN-MAN is likely to give the numbers a bump and make a daily non stop service work. I would say that the greater question for SQ to answer if this was to happen, would be what would happen to the MUC route? Would the partnership with Lufthansa provide a wider feed?