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  • SQ and South America

    Back in 2010 SQ launched flights to Sao Paulo and it was supposedly doing well for a couple of years until the Brazilian economy dipped. Citing substantial losses, SQ pulled the route in 2016.

    The Brazilian economy is now picking up again. I am sure the SQ management will have more data and analytics to study the current market conditions, but do you think SQ will ever return to South America? Noting that it has a Star Alliance member in Avianca, could SQ make the route work again?

  • #2
    Living in Brazil, a sad topic close to home considering I am without a direct SQ option for years.

    Yeah, it would great if they were to resume the GRU flight, or an alternative to South America. But I don’t see that happening anytime soon. For sure SQ have a gap in their network, but after flying this route in J and F onward to Asia from when it started until its demise in 2016, I’m not sure if the conditions are right to make it work. I knew the station manager and sales manager in São Paulo and although they were planning to deploy the A350, a route needs a certain frequency and demand to make it viable. São Paulo is probably the most logical destination/hub for South America.

    LATAM were quick to operate part of the route GRU>BCN>GRU with almost identical slots when SQ pulled out. As for Avianca, in Brazil they (Avianca Brasil) ceased trading in June 2019. Post TAM and now Avianca Brasil, there is very little Star Alliance coverage within South America, only Avianca in Colombia if I am not mistaken.

    Personally, I would love to see SIN>JNB>GRU, or SIN>CPT>GRU, as I believe there is no direct connection between Brazil and Capetown. With the right timings for the stopover in South Africa this would reduce the flight time considerably compared to routing via Europe (Barcelona), anyway just my dream...

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    • #3
      Originally posted by AsiaCommuter View Post
      Personally, I would love to see SIN>JNB>GRU, or SIN>CPT>GRU, as I believe there is no direct connection between Brazil and Capetown. With the right timings for the stopover in South Africa this would reduce the flight time considerably compared to routing via Europe (Barcelona), anyway just my dream...
      While I have no idea if the leg to GRU would work as you are suggesting, SQ do seem to have been doing well with JNB lately if the need to add additional flights on a seasonal basis is an indication. There’s the potential there to decouple CPT off JNB, make JNB a daily terminator and operate CPT direct, continuing to GRU with a 3 or 4x weekly. A couple of CPT tags out of JNB could still be used, much like the MXP/BCN/GRU arrangement in the past.

      Again, don’t know if the demand is there, but I see a timetabling advantage that would compliment the situation for CPT.

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