Singapore Airlines

[User001]

It won't be down to the loads.

SQ seem to be throwing everything they can at the MAN-IAH route. Fares for as little as £250 return and a free tourist pass to use in Houston, it's bonkers and doesn't scream high loads. If I could convince the wife to go we would have booked already.

 

[Dobbo]

Agreed. I quite fancy a trip to the superbowl early next year! LH have canned MUC-IAH from early next year. Hopefully SQ can pick up some indirect traffic from MUC (although they would have to compete with FRA for this).

Nothing on the MAN-SIN sector, so hopefully this part of the flight is performing well.

 

[User001]

MAN-SIN doing well, but, I fear the next 12 months could be last chance saloon for IAH (pun intended), seems it's struggling a fair bit.

 

[Dobbo]

Yes - do you think SQ will look to reroute SIN-IAH elsewhere or simply drop it?

I suspect we have more than 12 months, they operated DME-IAH on abysmal loads for a long time, and I think they will want to give the sector a chance to be a sucess.

 

[Aceshigh]

Full codeshare would help.

When is a codeshare not a codeshare when it's erratic !

I can't get any sense from Flybe re email I sent to them.

The SIA codeshare was indeed announced in July to Singapore it included ALL flybe domestic routes ex Manchester.

Apparently only 4 however are workable re the connection times re Houston.

This is nonsense !

1st wave 730 ish .

Can anybody explain this because I'm totally non plussed !

 

[Aceshigh]

Exeter are advertisng Houston all over their web site but Flybe adamant it's not a connector.

At least according to RoutesOnline and indeed Flybe customer care.

https://www.exeter-airport.co.uk/singapore-airlines-via-manchester

 

[EGCC_MAN]

A full codeshare with FlyBe would of course be a positive. But the real prize has to be a blanket-codeshare agreement with United Airlines encompassing the full range of connections beyond Houston. Any indication of progress on this?

 

[ethanegcc]

A UA codeshare is essential for any tatl IAH route to work. I thought IAH being a UA hub was one of the major reasons SQ flew there - the only non *A carriers into IAH are BA/KE/AF IIRC to much large markets than MAN.

Houston isn't a tourist destination and a picture of cowboys on SQ's twitter feed just won't cut it - a UA codeshare is definitely needed - then I could see the loads shooting up.

 

[Coathanger16]

Perhaps of some interest re UA/SQ codeshare:

http://centreforaviation.com/analys...singapore-us-nonstops-would-make-sense-280561

 

[Coathanger16]

A UA codeshare is essential for any tatl IAH route to work. I thought IAH being a UA hub was one of the major reasons SQ flew there - the only non *A carriers into IAH are BA/KE/AF IIRC to much large markets than MAN.

Houston isn't a tourist destination and a picture of cowboys on SQ's twitter feed just won't cut it - a UA codeshare is definitely needed - then I could see the loads shooting up.

Did UA ever codeshare with SQ on the previous IAH-DME route?

Whilst a UA codeshare would certainly help the IAH-MAN route, at the end of the day, United are going to prefer to have passengers travel on their aircraft/flights and not another airline - even if that airline is an alliance partner. This means routing passengers to Singapore through their San Francisco hub and passengers to Manchester through their Newark hub.

This point if reinforced considering how the American airlines have got nervous about UK routes following Brexit. United won't want to do anything that might draw passengers away from their EWR - MAN service.

 

[Chilly Dog]

It's all happening with the A350s right now.

SQ is now official, and in the GDS. First flight from SIN on 17th Jan. Stays at 5 weekly, straight swap 77W for 359.

01JAN17-28JAN17 MTWTFSS MANCHESTER /SINGAPORE
18JAN 1.34.67 MAN SIN 1110# 0755 SQ 51 359
17JAN 1.34.67 MAN SIN 1110# 0755 SQ 51 77W

Just as with CX, the swap maintains available J class seats, with economy down from 228 to 187 per flight, but the introduction of 24 premium economy seats. And of course the loss of First, but this has been flagged for a while.

 

[ethanegcc]

To be honest, I am a bit disappointed to see that we loose the 77W for a straight swap, however an increase to daily *should* be on the horizon when they receive more aircraft.

 

[ethanegcc]

View attachment 4274
It is indeed now showing but not yet on google flights. Cathay is now showing as 359 on all platforms from 2JUN.

By June, on some days, there will be three A350s on the ground at one time, from none.

 

[David_itl]

This may be of slight interest.... when SIN-DME-IAH became SIN-MAN-IAH, they introduced a pure SIN-DME service. That's now going to be extended onto Stockholm. From that, I'm deducing that the SIN-IAH portion of the route worked quite well and it's just the Russian economy failing that led them to evaluate a new strategy. Add on the idea that they were uncompetitive at MAN with a 2 stop strategy for onward connections, it may have become a no-brainer for SIN-MAN-IAH even if there's no sign a UA codeshare on MAN-IAH: large market for MAN-SIN, wide ranging connecting possibilities at MAN using Flybe given US/UK ties and the onward codesharing with UA from IAH.

 

[ethanegcc]

Yes, even if the figures for sole MAN-IAH travel are poor, we have got to remember that the market they are serving is also SIN-IAH and if the market was not there for that, they just would have dropped it, rather than rerouted.

 

[Dobbo]

All things considered, if the A350 makes a daily service work on all sectors (and work well) then it will be a great move for MAN. It would be great for UA to get on board, but I hope it is not necessary.

 

[ethanegcc]

Advertisements on the roundabout next to 'the Station' have been updated r.e. SQ. There is still the one that says 'Experience the service that other airlines talk about' and now an additional saying 'Your Texas road trip starts here. Now flying from Manchester-Houston direct'

Good to see advertising being done.

 

[Dobbo]

They have a lot of work to do to in order to claw back the passengers from their early noughties heyday, where they were filling daily B772ER and asking for more capacity.

Obviously the MEB3 have changed the market since then so it will be tough, but grabbing some kangaroo traffic back should help MAN-SIN.

 

[ethanegcc]

Travel agents are also extremely in favour of ME airlines. They seem to think they cannot use CX/SQ because they are not daily, it would be a great help for both of these routes to grow to daily.

They really need to get people back on the MAN-SIN sector, even though it is performing okay, it could do a lot better.

Also, since MUC has decoupled, they have kept the 77W and the daily frequency which can't be profitable and apparently MUC and DUS (a new route, similar to MAN, three weekly 359) are on the red list for SQ with profitability terrible and yields on the DUS-SIN route atrocious.

If the yields are there on SIN-MAN-IAH it ensures profitability and with a fuel efficient aircraft, hopefully loads and profitability will grow.

 

[Coathanger16]

Travel agents are also extremely in favour of ME airlines.

Isn't a big part of this cost? Whenever I've looked at flights to Asia/Australia, its nearly always cheaper with one of the MEB3.