All posts tagged: Commentary

Fifth freedom flights and Singapore Airlines: What next?

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In recent months, Singapore Airlines and its low-cost subsidiary Scoot made news with some of its more innovative fifth freedom service within Europe. Singapore Airlines first announced the resumption of its Rome service, but via Copenhagen as a tag-on service. Shortly after, Scoot announced that its original two European destination – Athens in Greece and Berlin in Germany – will be combined into a single service (Singapore-Athens-Berlin) later this month. The move has led many industry observers say that this was a tactic for SIA to tap on the liberalisation of borders and Covid-19 controls within the EU, given that Asia Pacific was still pretty much closed up even as the rest of the world are easing restrictions as vaccination rates are going up. Singapore Airlines’ past fifth freedom flights As a purely international aircraft with no domestic market to tap on, Singapore Airlines has to think creatively to tap on other revenue markets. While Singapore is geographically advantaged when it comes to serving Asia Pacific as a region, it doesn’t have the same edge …

Commentary: What will happen to Changi Airport?

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With major carriers at the airport almost zeroing their capacity, what are Changi’s options? In the fight against Covid-19, Singapore has finally done in March what it has long been reluctant to do: shutting off its borders to visitors. As an international and world renowned air hub, this was simply unimaginable in the past. Here in Singapore, we pride ourselves for being an open nation, where foreign tourists and businesses alike are welcome to spend and earn their money here. Since the beginning of the year, Singapore has increasingly tighten the controls to keep the virus out. First it was a Stay-Home Notice (SHN) on visitors from select region, followed by a ban of visitors from certain regions, and the list of countries slowly expanded over the weeks. These measures weren’t success enough, by the government’s standards, to keep the virus at bay, so the final gauntlet was dropped on Sunday when Singapore announced it will bar all short term visitors since 23 Mar. Subsequently, even long-term pass holders had to seek permission before setting …