SIA eyes untapped airports to expand base in India

March 29, 2013 11:42 pm | Updated October 18, 2016 02:25 pm IST - MUMBAI:

Having successfully connected Visakhapatnam to Singapore through its 100 per cent subsidiary, SilkAir, Singapore International Airlines (SIA) is now looking for similar untapped locations to expand its footprint in India.

Though the airline has exhausted its seat entitlements from India, it is identifying virgin markets which could be connected later on.

“When we launched flights to Visakhapatnam last year, many people asked us why? Even most Indians have not been to Visakhapatnam. But when we did a study, we found out that the city V has three to four million people staying in 100 kms radius, and the area has significant business. But the airport has no direct international flight to anywhere. There was one flight to Dubai via Hyderabad. So we decided to connect it with Singapore,,” said G. M. Toh, General Manager (India) of SIA.

“There may not be enough passengers from Visakhapatnam to Singapore, but there are enough to fly onwards. There are many such cities in India. The challenge for us is to identify them. We are studying such untapped markets,” Mr. Toh told The Hindu in a recent interview.

He declined to name the new destinations but these cities are believed to be the ones which have no direct international flight despite having a decent international flyer base.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.