Low loads on flights to China & India

[freshthinking]

Hello Everybody,

I heard that sq always have full capacity for most of the destinations except for India and China... Anyone knows why?


Thanks.

[9V-JKL]

Welcome to SQ Talk!
We're keen to know where you heard that from. Don't know about India but China I seriously doubt especially PVG. Try finding a seat at the last minute

[ycp81]

Actually some PVG flights are quite empty in economy, just that the first and biz class are always full. The previous time i flew PVG-SIN, the there were equal number of pax in economy as in first and biz!! U can imagine how empty the economy cabin was...

[SINFJ]

Unless someone can justify with statistics on the actual load, this thread will become meaningless since it would be either based on hearsay or that experience on one ortwo flights.

[epr0mlse]

Since when we have low capacity on flights between SIN-PVG-SIN & SIN-PEK-SIN ???

[pavion]

I can tell you that SIN - DEL - SIN is nearly always full according to my friend who works at DEL for SQ

[Singapore_Air]

Compared to most other countries, India has been quite liberal towards Singapore.

Nevertheless, India restricts both capacity and frequency and has protected for some time the main hubs of DEL and BOM from increased flights from Singapore.

Also, previously, some Singapore based LCCs were stealing slots from SIA by operating flights to I think CCU and BLR. Tiger Airways operates and competes against SilkAir to COK, India.

Dunno what China's restrictions are.

[SQ forever]

officially, many flights to india are overbooked by at least 20% for the next 2-3 months.

holds very true for SIN-BLR. even the new day light services are seeing around 90% loads with the evening runs going chock-a-bloc.

increasing biz with good tourism O/D & predominant connecting traffic on india - us west coast + oz contribute to SQ's strong positioning with very good front end loads.

SQ always sells full fare economy class on india routes. this added to the fact that indian routes are turnaround flights & thus the savings on crew stations & other overheads.

not sure about china though, wonder why the 5th daily flt to PVG is withdrawn.

[flyguy]

you heard wrong freshthinking - esp on China routes - its at least an average load in the high 70s and 80s - however for as SQ have increased its flights to PVG n SHA in the past couple of months - perhaps these additional flights have a lower than ave load for now - but it will pick up.

[9V-SKD]

Unless someone can justify with statistics on the actual load, this thread will become meaningless since it would be either based on hearsay or that experience on one ortwo flights.

I certainly agree with SINFJ. Especially the load factors to India has always been fully booked especially with the school holidays ahead.

With TR flying MAA route- a direct competition with SQ and TR flying COK direct competition with MI...

I can assure you guys that TRZ sectors is a HOT Indian Sectors whereby its always a Full Flights. Only IX flies there...

[sporadic]

I certainly agree with SINFJ. Especially the load factors to India has always been fully booked especially with the school holidays ahead.

With TR flying MAA route- a direct competition with SQ and TR flying COK direct competition with MI...

I can assure you guys that TRZ sectors is a HOT Indian Sectors whereby its always a Full Flights. Only IX flies there...

Actually even with TR going to MAA SQ's flights to MAA are always still nearly full right? Just checking. Meaning that LCCs have not much of an impact vs "premium" airlines like SQ still?

[9V-SPL]

SIN-TRV(MI 498) during this time period is full.
SIN-MAA(SQ 528) is also full

According to my experiences. The latter used to operate on B747-400 aircrafts, but currently is B777-300. =(

[9V-SKD]

Actually even with TR going to MAA SQ's flights to MAA are always still nearly full right? Just checking. Meaning that LCCs have not much of an impact vs "premium" airlines like SQ still?

Yes LCCs does not pose a "real threat" to the FSCs but for sectors such MAA is ever popular especially Traders Market is very HOT....

Yes TR MAA sectors service is relatively heavy recently too..

[zvezda]

Also, previously, some Singapore based LCCs were stealing slots from SIA by operating flights to I think CCU and BLR.

What do you mean "stealing slots"?

[Adrenaline]

Hello Everybody,

I heard that sq always have full capacity for most of the destinations except for India and China... Anyone knows why?


Thanks.

That's certainly untrue. I am a Singaporean myself and have just came back from a flight last week from SIN-NKG (Singapore - Nanjing), which was 3/4 full of Chinese nationals, and about 1/4 of the passengers were Singaporeans. The entire plane was fully loaded, mind you.

Well, on the return journey which ended at PVG (Shanghai, China), it's quite expected that the plane would be full too.


Unless you mean during the SARS period where the entire plane was rather empty, which was of course years ago. =)