SIA Adds Fourth Daily Flight to MNL

Singapore expands Manila and HongKong as it loses a quarter of its passenger traffic

18 June 2009

Singapore - Singapore Airlines has announced Wednesday that it will add a fourth triple seven daily flight between Singapore and Manila from 10 July.

Huang Cheng Eng, Executive Vice-President of Marketing for Singapore Airlines, said that "The frequency increase on this route underscores the strong and growing economic, business and tourism links between Singapore and the Philippines. It also improves the connectivity of Manila to the rest of the world."

"The scheduling of the four services to depart and arrive at various times during the day between the two cities gives our customers more options to choose a flight which better suits their travel needs."

The increase from three to four daily flights will expand capacity by more than 20%. The increase in capacity was made possible as a result of recent bilateral air services agreements signed between Singapore and the Philippines recently.

To give customers more flight options to suit their travel needs and to reduce transit times for onward departures from Singapore Changi Airport, the airline decided to re-time one of its present Manila services.

SQ916 will depart Singapore at 14:10 and arrive in Manila at 17:45. The return flight SQ921 will depart Manila at 18:50 and arrive in Singapore at 22:20.

While SQ912 will be re-timed to depart Singapore at 12:10 and arrive in Manila at 15:45, while the return flight, SQ919 will leave Manila at 16:50 and arrive in Singapore at 20:20.

Singapore Airlines has been bullish on the Philippine market despite massive 62.8 % drop of passenger traffic from its route network as it continues to be hit by the global financial crisis with the carrier shedding a quarter of its passenger numbers during the past year.

The airline carried 1.2 million passengers in May, compared with almost 1.6 million for the same month last year, according to figures released on Tuesday. In contrast, Manila and Hongkong traffic has been on the rise lately which prompted them to introduce additional flights.

Singapore Airlines will also launch A380 flights on the Singapore-Hong Kong route on July 9, 2009 replacing an existing daily Boeing 777-300ER service. The operation of the 471-seat Singapore Airlines A380 to Hong Kong represents an increase of ten per cent in seat capacity to the City. The Airlines currently operates five daily non-stop flights between Singapore and Hong Kong, along with daily non-stop services between Hong Kong and San Francisco.

Singapore Airlines currently has eight A380s in service, a further 11 on firm order, and options on six more.