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Singapore Airlines to invest in airport logistic support

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI DEC. 15 . Singapore Airlines has no proposal to re-open fresh bilateral talks to enter the domestic skies through the Tata-SIA route. However, it is keen on investing in upgrading engineering, maintenance, and ramp handling facilities at Indian airports.

Explaining the SIA's exploratory investment strategies in the civil aviation sector worldwide, especially in the Asia Pacific region, Rick Clements, Vice-President, Public Affairs, told a press conference here that "we are interested in entering the logistic support area of Indian airports and not actually keen on developing or taking-over any Indian airport operation as a whole". He was replying to queries on whether the SIA was interested in investing in Indian airports.

India was an important market in the airlines global network, Mr. Clements and B.K. Ong, General Manager-India, noted. The airline currently operated as many as 24 services a week to India, linking Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, and Kolkata.

The SIA was preparing to spread its wings to Bangalore, besides augmenting its capacity to Mumbai, New Delhi and Kolkata by upgrading the aircraft, Mr. Clements. The airline was confident of introducing a tri-weekly flight between Bangalore and Singapore from April 1 next year, subject to the commercial arrangement with the national carrier, Air India.

The airline was in the process of replacing its Airbus-310 fleet of aircraft with the latest generation Boeing-777s. Between December 3 and January 10, the airline had been allowed to upgrade its capacity to clear the rush in its present New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata points.

The airline had placed orders for twenty-five 500-plus seater super jumbos (Airbus-380) from Airbus Industrie, of which 10 had been firmed up.

This was to further enhance the long-haul non-stop operations of the airlines network, especially linking the South-East with the West.

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