Low-Cost Singaporean Airline Lands Maiden Flight in Sydney

11th Jun 2012

Though the flight was delayed by an hour due to medical emergency, it was welcomed by waiting passengers at the check-in gates bedecked in bright yellow balloons as well as miniature Singaporean flags with traditional dancers and musicians providing entertainment to the surprised guests.

Scoot will keep a once-daily flight from its hub Sydney to Singapore offering discounted tickets for as low as $179 for a one-way fare. The budget carrier will also start flying from Gold Coast to Singapore five times a week using its Boeing 777 aircraft with two-class configurations, premium and economy.

Aside from the two Australian cities, Scoot will also fly from Singapore to Bangkok, Thailand and Tianjin, China. Later, it will add Taipei, Taiwan and Tokyo, Japan to its growing network as announced recently.

Campbell Wilson, Scoot's Chief Executive Officer, happily declared this morning that it has been an eventful day for the airline considering the year-long preparation that they had done for this event.

The CEO said that the creation of the region's newest budget carrier was the result of the rapid growth of low-fare no-frills budget airlines, whether short-haul or long-haul, in Asia.

He added that the low-fare airlines comprise 26% of Changi Airport's traffic to date from zero less than ten years ago.

Scoot initially has two planes, both of which are Boeing 777-200ER, the wide-body long-range aircraft which can accommodate more than 360 passengers in a two-class configuration. It will add one in July and another in September, bringing its fleet to a total of 4 aircraft by the end of this year.

The CEO revealed that their plan is to have a fleet of 14 aircraft by the middle of the decade that would enable them to fly to at least 12 destinations.

The Singapore Tourism regional director, Kenneth Lim, was optimistic about the positive impact of the growth of low-cost carriers to the economy of the city-state, as more Australian tourists can visit Singapore without spending so much on airfares. Thus, they (tourists) will tend to spend more on shopping and other leisure activities in Singapore.

The ongoing price war among low-cost carriers serving Australian cities to Asia has intensified with the entry of Scoot. Malaysia's own AirAsia X, currently the region's largest budget airline, has been granted to fly the Sydney-Kuala Lumpur route in April this year.