Tigerair will introduce non-stop flights between Singapore and Wuxi from April 28. The network expansion will make the low-cost carrier the only airline to operate non-stop flights between the two cities.
The four-times weekly route will not only provide direct access to Wuxi, but act as a gateway to the nearby metropolitan area of Suzhou in Jiangsu Province. Both are important cities in the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone and have a combined population of about 17 million people, with a GDP of more than RMB2 trillion.
Singapore maintains a strong investment presence in the area. The China–Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park, established in 1994, has grown into a township that encompasses high tech, pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, eco-friendly living and a higher education cluster.
Flight TR2940 will depart Singapore every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday at 1600, arriving in Wuxi at 2130. The return service, on flight TR2941, will take off from Wuxi at 2300 before touching back down in Singapore at 0450 the following day.
“Singapore has strong trade relations with the important Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone, of which the metropolitan area comprising Wuxi and Suzhou is a core population and economic activity centre,” said Lee Lik Hsin, Tigerair’s chief executive.
“Our non-stop service to Wuxi offers greater connectivity and convenience to customers as Singapore’s business and bilateral ties with these two cities continue to grow.”
Having struggled for years, the low-cost carrier has since been fully acquired by the Singapore Airlines Group (see here), paving the way for it to establish a closer alignment with the group’s other LCC, Scoot.
Speaking at a roundtable in Toulouse last week, SIA chief executive Goh Choon Phong emphasized that the two LCC brands would continue to operate as separate airlines for the moment, but hinted that a merge may be possible in the future.
“We will keep our minds open on that [possibility] going forward. We won’t rule that out,” said Goh. “However, just as Singapore Airlines and Silk Air have existed separately very successfully, but do [work together] in terms of network planning as well as revenue management, we believe that Tigerair can also do so with Scoot without having to merge at this point in time.”
For more information, visit tigerair.com
Clement Huang
