SIA Mainline to China

[SQ36]

Couldn't find a related thread on this, but have always wondered - why does the mainline only fly to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou?

Surely there's business demand to Chengdu and Shenzhen?

BA, Etihad, KLM, Qatar, UA all operate there. It'd be nice to take the mainline instead of SilkAir.

As AusBT says, "Firmly footed in the finance industry, Chengdu stands home to branches of over 260 of the globe’s Fortune 500 companies including major technology brands Intel, IBM, Cisco, Microsoft and Motorola, with an urban population in excess of 10 million people."

Any other secondary cities that SIA mainline could fly to?

[259850]

Any other secondary cities that SIA mainline could fly to?

I don't see any city other than Chengdu. Business class fares to Chengdu on MI usually are higher than business class fares to Guangzhou on SQ. Maybe SQ uses MI for the Chengdu sector because it can get away with it; the only competition is an ill-timed Air China narrow-body.

The business class load on the night Singapore-Guangzhou-Singapore flight was low (~50%) on the times I've flown it. I've always been able to get the lowest fare bucket (U class) on Guangzhou flights even for last minute bookings for Monday morning flights (except during Canton Fair). So not exactly clear that it is a high yielding market.

Shenzhen is trickier - it is just as easy to fly into HK and then take the boat/bus/car to Shenzhen as it is to fly into Shenzhen. Other major cities like Tianjin and Nanjing are easily accessed via Beijing and Shanghai, respectively.

[cheeky]

A somewhat relevant question that I have been pondering: Is there any reason why SQ doesn't fly into SHA (Hongqiao) in Shanghai? CX now flies there twice daily, and many north asian carriers have direct flights too (in addition to PVG). Even with SQ's 5 daily to PVG, morning and evening flights are mostly full, so I can imagine there will be demand for a daily into SHA, esp. since it is a lot closer to the city center. Is it perhaps due to govt restrictions?

[chiraagnt]

CAPA had a very interesting recent analysis article (I believe yesterday or day before it was posted) on SIA's Expanding China Ops! Hidden behind a paywall though,

http://centreforaviation.com/analysi...silkair-294214

Scoot’s last two Chinese destinations, Guangzhou and Hangzhou, were not new to the group but launched as part of an initiative to use the most suitable brand for each existing market. In Guangzhou Scoot took over one of Tigerair’s two daily flights; SIA the parent airline also serves Guangzhou with two daily flights.

In Hangzhou, Scoot was used to take over for SilkAir in Oct-2015. Scoot also enabled the SIA Group to expand in the Hangzhou market, as it now operates five weekly flights compared with four weekly SilkAir flights using smaller aircraft.

SilkAir had only launched flights to Hangzhou in 2014 but it quickly became obvious that the market was better served by an LCC brand. In general, secondary cities in China are more suitable for the group’s LCCs. These are usually price-sensitive markets consisting primarily of leisure passengers – generally outbound leisure passengers heading to Singapore or popular holiday destinations beyond Singapore such as Bali and the Maldives.

Singapore is again experiencing rapid growth in visitor numbers from China, opening up opportunities for new routes to secondary cities and additional capacity to existing destinations. Chinese visitor arrival numbers in Singapore dropped slightly in 2014 and were flat in 2015, but spiked 13% in the first five months of 2016. LCCs are generally better positioned for this sector of the market.

However, the SIA Group still believes that there are new destinations in China which are more suitable for an FSC brand. Fuzhou is one example as it is a popular business destination, including from Singapore

Fuzhou will become SilkAir’s eighth destination in China, joining Changsha, Chengdu, Chongqing, Kunming, Shenzhen, Wuhan and Xiamen. SilkAir is the only SIA Group airline in all these destinations except Shenzhen, which is also served by Tigerair.

Tigerair currently serves 10 destinations in China. Zhengzhou was the most recent addition and was launched in late Jun-2016. Tigerair also serves Guangzhou, Haikou, Jinan, Nanning, Ningbo, Quanzhou, Shenzhen, Wuxi and Xi’an. As previously mentioned, only Guangzhou and Shenzhen are also served by other SIA Group airlines.

SIA the parent airline currently only serves three Chinese destinations – Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai (with Guangzhou also served by Tigerair and Scoot). In total the SIA Group currently has 23 destinations in mainland China and will have 25 following the launch of Dalian and Fuzhou. With Shenyang being upgraded to nonstop, Dalian will be the only one of these 25 destinations that is not served nonstop from Singapore.

As CAPA has previously observed, SIA already has more destinations in China than any airline group outside Taiwan and South Korea.

Since May-2011 the SIA Group’s Chinese network has grown from only nine destinations to 23 – and soon to 25. The SIA Group has approximately a 64% share of total Singapore-China seat capacity and China is now the group’s single largest market. (Thai-based JV NokScoot, which is not included in SIA Group figures, also has a network that is entirely focused on China.)

[Airbus SAS A340-500]

A somewhat relevant question that I have been pondering: Is there any reason why SQ doesn't fly into SHA (Hongqiao) in Shanghai? CX now flies there twice daily, and many north asian carriers have direct flights too (in addition to PVG). Even with SQ's 5 daily to PVG, morning and evening flights are mostly full, so I can imagine there will be demand for a daily into SHA, esp. since it is a lot closer to the city center. Is it perhaps due to govt restrictions?

I hope the airport authorities step up their refurbishment of Hongqiao Airport. I just flew SHA-GMP and the international terminal (T1) was an absolute dump. The lounge was terrible, too. I cannot imagine SQ putting their premium class passengers in that lounge.

[eamond]

I've heard beforehand (a couple years old) that this is a CAAC restriction on SQ itself about where it can fly; there's no such restrictions for MI, TZ or TR. Not sure about today, though.

A somewhat relevant question that I have been pondering: Is there any reason why SQ doesn't fly into SHA (Hongqiao) in Shanghai? CX now flies there twice daily, and many north asian carriers have direct flights too (in addition to PVG). Even with SQ's 5 daily to PVG, morning and evening flights are mostly full, so I can imagine there will be demand for a daily into SHA, esp. since it is a lot closer to the city center. Is it perhaps due to govt restrictions?

This is a bilateral issue, just like what restrictions GMP and HND have. SHA only has services to HKG, MFM, GMP, HND and TSA (well at least before the T1 refurb is finished) and this is reciprocal. There's no such agreement with SIN for now, and to be honest for most international flights into Shanghai.

I hope the airport authorities step up their refurbishment of Hongqiao Airport. I just flew SHA-GMP and the international terminal (T1) was an absolute dump. The lounge was terrible, too. I cannot imagine SQ putting their premium class passengers in that lounge.

I think it's still better than the one at SGN, no?
Cheers
Michael