Singapore Airlines has announced that effective March 25th 2008, it will be launching new flights to Houston, Texas via Moscow-DME four times a week using a Boeing 777-300ER. SQ will also have 5th freedom rights on the DME-IAH-DME sector which will see it have a monopoly hold on this "oil/energy route" which no carrier flies nonstop. Flights will be flown on Tues, Thur, Sat & Sun.
In addition, SQ has filed an application with Zurich-ZRH airport authorities to increase their flights to the city from daily B 773ERs nonstop to double daily B 773ERs nonstop effective Summer 2008. In its filing, SQ wants to arrive into ZRH at 1935 and depart back at 2100 using flight numbers SQ 343-344.
Analysis :
Quite an interesting move on behalf of SQ to fly to IAH via DME. Obviously, they must conducted a thorough review of this route and realized that there is quite a bit of demand in J & F class for this sector hence why not jump on to the band wagon before Continental does. With Russia's oil and energy industries currently experiencing a huge boom, linking two major "oil & energy capital" cities should witness a fair amount of high yielding J class passengers.
From IAH, SQ should also be able to attract high yielding business bound for SIN/KUL/JKT/BKK as the SQ brand name carries a lot of weight in Texas. SQ's cargo business too will see big business with this new flight.
No comments:
Post a Comment