Singapore Airlines’ new long-haul budget airline Scoot took to the skies in its maiden flight from Singapore to Sydney on Tuesday, and also announced two new additions to its growing list of future destinations – Tokyo and Taipei.
The daily Sydney route is the first of three upcoming launches, which include a five-times-weekly service to Australia’s Gold Coast starting June 14, a daily Bangkok service beginning July 5, and four weekly flights to Tainjin, to commence on August 23. The Singapore-Taipei-Tokyo route will take off in the last quarter of 2012.
The Sydney flights depart Singapore at 0210, arriving in Sydney at 1140, while the return leg leaves at 1250 to touch down in Singapore at 1900. The Gold Coast service, meanwhile, will depart Singapore at 2225 for 0750 arrival the next morning and take off again at 0900 to arrive back in Singapore at 1500.
The Bangkok flights are scheduled to leave Singapore at 1725 to reach Thai capital at 1845, and return at 2000 for a 2315 arrival time in Singapore.
Finally, the Tianjin service will leave at 0130 and arrive at 0730, and leave from the Chinese boomtown at 0900 to be back in the Lion City at 1500.
While discussing the carrier's aim to increase connectivitiy in the region at an affordable cost, Scoot’s chief executive Campbell Wilson cited the Tianjin route as an example: “Tianjin, a mere 30-minute high-speed bullet train ride away from [Beijing], has huge potential. Besides being the first airline to fly direct to Tianjin from Singapore, Scoot will also connect Tianjin through one of the world’s biggest air hubs, Singapore, offering connections to over 100 cities.”
Sydney Airport chief Kerrie Mather also welcomed Scoot's launch: “We’ve seen how low cost carriers have stimulated demand here and overseas and Scoot's daily service to Sydney will add 290,000 seats a year to this key growth corridor.”
And we can expect more routes to be added to the carrier's already ambitious destination agenda, according to Campbell: “We’re starting with Australia and China, but this really is just the start – in the near future we’ll bring you to places where the words ‘low-cost’ and ‘long-haul’ may never have been uttered in the same sentence before. Stay tuned.”
The low-cost carrier keeps its prices competitive by including only the seat in them. Everything else, including inflight entertainment (see story here), food, baggage and insurance (see story here) comes at an extra cost. Unlike most budget airlines, Scoot will, however, provide a business class option – “ScootBiz” (see story here).
In celebration, Scoot is currently offering special promotions on the new routes. For more information, visit www.flyscoot.com.
Alex Andersson
