Singapore Airlines

[Dobbo]

That may be true. A daily B77WN does not seem unreasonable to me.

 

[Chilly Dog]

The blocking of F class happened before, fairly recently, on selective days, leading everyone to assume MAN was moving to a mixed 350/777 operation, some via MUC, some direct.

Indeed that may have been SQ's plan at the time. Or it could have been a wild assumption, whipped into fact by various rumour blogs : )

This time - it could be something, it could be nothing. Certainly I agree it's unlikely to be Scoot. I have a contact who told me around 2 months ago that Athens was to be the first Scoot destination in Europe. Others are on the cards, but MAN is not currently on the Scoot list.

 

[Ray Finkle]

I have a contact who told me around 2 months ago that Athens was to be the first Scoot destination in Europe. Others are on the cards, but MAN is not currently on the Scoot list.

Word seems to be that Scoot have a UK route to be announced, would that be similar to what you have heard?

 

[Chilly Dog]

Word seems to be that Scoot have a UK route to be announced, would that be similar to what you have heard?

I haven't heard - cities mentioned were not in the UK, but I shall ask!

 

[David_itl]

It would be a bit fruity for SQ to make a song and dance about launching Houston to drop it weeks later... They would have persevered with the SIN-DME-IAH route if we were going Scoot.

 

[ethanegcc]

Yes, I am sure they won't be dropping SIN-MAN-IAH just weeks after it's launch. I would say there are only two plausible options:
-as mentioned it could be changing to the new 4 class 77W with less F seats
-maybe a daily A359

However I agree with Dobbo that it is not unreasonable to have daily 77W.

 

[Dobbo]

The question about this is aircraft availability. Following the fire,
And ongoing renovation to the B777 fleet, we don't know quite how they will allocate.

Will they repair, replace or simply do without the B777 that was on fire?

 

[Land23R]

Good point Dobbo.

 

[Ray Finkle]

I haven't heard - cities mentioned were not in the UK, but I shall ask!

Many thanks, I appreciate it.

 

[Dobbo]

Slight tweak to the flight timings, which I think make connections better.

SQ51 MAN-SIN now departs at 1110 instead of 1135
SQ52 SIN-MAN now departs at 0215 instead of 0235
SQ52 MAN-IAH now departs at 1110 instead of 1115
SQ51 IAH-MAN now departs at 1950 instead of 2015

 

[User001]

Actually the new times are as follows:

SQ51 0235 SIN 0900-1010 MAN 1530 IAH
SQ52 2015 IAH 1005-1110 MAN 0755 SIN

So 2 on the ground for 5 mins 1005-1010.

 

[Dobbo]

User, I presume SQ required new slot requests for the updated timings?

If that is so, have they requested them for all 7 days of the week, or just 5 currently planned?

 

[User001]

Singapore applied for 28 weekly slots (2 daily) right from the outset and still hold all 28 slots, so, can increase to daily in each direction at any time.

 

[ethanegcc]

Actually the new times are as follows:

SQ51 0235 SIN 0900-1010 MAN 1530 IAH
SQ52 2015 IAH 1005-1110 MAN 0755 SIN

So 2 on the ground for 5 mins 1005-1010.

It will be quite a sight to see two SQ 77Ws on the ground at the same time. It is also good to see MAN advertising the Houston fifth freedom route on their website. With the following statement and image:

WIN a pair of tickets to Houston with Singapore Airlines
From 31st October 2016, Singapore Airlines will operate its first ever transatlantic flight from Manchester to their exciting new US destination of Houston, Texas.

This cosmopolitan city is the 4th largest in the USA and offers visitors great authentic Southern hospitality combined with modern day urban chic – simply said, there is something for everyone.

 

[ethanegcc]

A quick search on bing for flights between Amsterdam and Houston comes up with the best option for November routing through MAN, on a mixture of KL and Singapore Airlines. Never thought AMS pax could be routing through MAN!

 

[Dobbo]

I suppose connecting traffic is likely to be necessary (or at least very helpful) to support the MAN-IAH sector.

If the indirect MAN-IAH traffic is roughly 41,000 per year (a figure I think I have seen banded around?) this equates at roughly 79 passengers per day each way.

Snatching some of the traffic from the UK regions (e.g. Aberdeen) and some other european cities is probably part of SQs strategy for the route.

 

[Jerry]

I suppose connecting traffic is likely to be necessary (or at least very helpful) to support the MAN-IAH sector.

If the indirect MAN-IAH traffic is roughly 41,000 per year (a figure I think I have seen banded around?) this equates at roughly 79 passengers per day each way.

Snatching some of the traffic from the UK regions (e.g. Aberdeen) and some other european cities is probably part of SQs strategy for the route.

Wouldn't a codeshare with Flybe help with that? Or do they already have one?

 

[Dobbo]

Wouldn't a codeshare with Flybe help with that? Or do they already have one?

SQ already have one with BE.

I don't know if they have one with UA? If they do, it may have a detrimental impact on the IAD flight, which is on a shorter season and is best described as "marginal".

 

[ethanegcc]

I do believe, however, that IAH offers a completely different array of connections to IAH. If we know that the o&d figure between MAN and IAH is 79 per day, MAN-IAH only operates five weekly, so we are roughly looking at 109 passengers travelling MAN-IAH per service at 5 weekly. Coupled with the advertising of the new route and UA connections at IAH this could look more like 140-150 passengers. We could then factor in BE connections and those from other airports around Europe booking through programmes which combine different airlines. BE's prime connection markets for this route I would say are the likes of EDI, ABZ and their extensive network to airports around Europe that have no Texas service such as DUS, HAN, LUX, TLS etc. This could easily look more like 180 passengers I think. Then we must realise that the route is shared traffic between SIN-IAH and MAN-IAH. I don't know if anyone knows the SIN-IAH stats from when it operated via Domodedovo but the seating capacity of the SQ77W used on the route is 8F, 42J, 228Y - overall 278 seats. I am sure that if you combine all of these factors e.g. increased advertising, BE connections, UA connections and SIN-IAH traffic, there could be some great loads on the flight.

 

[Dobbo]

Sorry - I mistyped...

79 passengers is the demand each way per flight at 5x weekly.