Singapore Airlines (SIA) has just unveiled a new suite of product offerings.
It has overhauled its first, business and economy class cabins on select flights between Singapore and London.
Analysts said this US$150 million investment will go some way in fending off the growing competition from the Gulf carriers.
Singapore Airlines has installed wider seats and bigger LCD screens to go along with latest inflight entertainment on eight Boeing 777-300ER planes, costing US$150 million.
Passengers flying en route from Singapore to London will be able to enjoy these new trappings in September.
Mak Swee Wah, executive vice president, commercial, at SIA, said: “We have new planes coming in, with the A350s and potentially a retrofit of the older aircraft as well, which we have not finalised yet but we will announce in due course.”
This is the airline's biggest cabin overhaul since 2007.
At 35 inches wide and with a flat bed that has been extended from 80 to 82 inches, SIA said this is one of the most spacious first class products in the sky.
The new seat features a 24-inch LCD screen and the design allows passengers to watch movies in private.
The revamped business class features the industry's widest full-flat bed, at 78 inches in length.
The new economy class will provide increased personal space and legroom, as well as touch screen offerings.
SIA hopes these souped-up offerings will keep the airline buoyant.
Mr Mak said: “We are going through a period of economic softness and there are uncertainties in some markets and inevitably that has an impact on demand especially for the premium segment. But there are signs of recovery. Some markets like the US are already showing signs of recovery and we hope that the recovery can be sustained. And I reiterate what I've said before, what we do today is not for the immediate term but to position ourselves for the future. And we're confident that when economies recover, demand will return and this product will be well received.
“Our quest to be in the position of leadership is not just about hardware alone; it's also about our network and most importantly about our service delivery and that has been our strength and we will continue to strengthen that.”
SIA's cabin overhaul comes amidst a market that is already saturated with other premium offerings.
Just last year, Middle Eastern stalwart Emirates also launched full-length showers for its first class passengers on its Airbus A380 planes.
Brendan Sobie, chief analyst, Southeast Asia, at CAPA, said: "There are a lot more competitors at the top level in terms of premium products than there were several years ago and a lot of that is due to the Gulf carriers. They're investing heavily and putting in new products, like Qatar, Emirates and Etihad. They will continue to evolve.
“Most of them were long behind Singapore Airlines but in recent years, most of them have since caught up with SIA to some extent. This doesn't mean they match SIA's products but they're a lot closer to the SIA products of today than previously. That means SIA has to take another step to maintain that gap."
As for ticket prices for the new seats, SIA said it is a matter of supply and demand.
A round-trip first class fare on the current Boeing 777-300ER from Singapore to London will cost around S$14,000.
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A major overhaul in the cabin to entice flyers into choosing SIA? We shall see how far can this improvement go.
The trainer assigned to guide a pilot who crash-landed an Asiana Airlines plane in San Francisco was on his first day in the job, the carrier said Tuesday, as investigators began interviewing the cockpit crew.
With speculation mounting that pilot error may have caused the fatal accident, the South Korean airline confirmed that trainer Lee Jung-Min had received his teaching licence for the Boeing 777 just a month before the crash on Saturday.
The trainer, an experienced pilot with thousands of flying hours, was assigned to guide colleague Lee Kang-Kuk, who was landing in the US city for the first time on that model of aircraft.
"This is not something abnormal. Every trainer has his first day as a trainer," an Asiana spokeswoman told AFP on Tuesday.
She added that the trainer had more than 3,000 hours of flight time on the Boeing 777.
The pilot, by contrast, had just 43 hours of flying that model although he was experienced on other aircrafts with more than 9,000 hours of flight time under his belt, Asiana said.
Two teenage Chinese girls were killed and more than 180 people injured when the flight from Seoul clipped a seawall short of the runway and went skidding out of control on its belly, shredding the tail end of the plane and starting a fire.
South Korean passenger Kim Ji-Eun, who was seated a few rows ahead of dozens of Chinese passengers at the rear of the cabin, including the two girls, described the terrifying crash.
"I saw people whose seat belts were somehow unbuckled being thrown out everywhere," Kim, 22, told the Chosun Ilbo daily.
"It was so scary. The (second) thud was so loud that people started screaming. I blinked once and looked back, only to see no one there," she said.
"I was so shocked to realise that none of the people who were seating behind me were there," she told the newspaper.
"I grabbed one of the oxygen masks tangled together overhead and wore it. Then I saw people screaming and jumping out of a big hole made in the aircraft and realised this was a very serious situation," said Kim, who damaged her spine jumping onto a wing.
Officials said about 20 people remained in critical condition in hospital.
A six-member South Korean team arrived in San Francisco on Monday to assist the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in probing the incident, said Choi Jeong-Ho, the head of South Korea's aviation bureau.
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Could this have been his lack of awareness when the plane was way below the intended speed for landing? Would it be better if they assigned a more experienced student to a less experienced trainer and vice versa?
The South Korean Boeing 777 which crashed in San Francisco after landing short of the runway was only seven years old and had no known mechanical problems, the Asiana Airlines CEO said Sunday.
"We purchased this airplane in March 2006... currently we understand that there are no engine or mechanical problems," Yoon Young-Doo told a press conference, adding that the two people killed were Chinese nationals.
South Korea's transport ministry said separately both the dead were female, born in 1996 and 1997.
The ministry said the plane's tail hit the runway and the aircraft veered to the left off the runway. A total of 181 people were injured.
Yoon said the crew had made an in-flight broadcast as usual, "asking passengers to buckle up for landing. There was no emergency alarm".
He said one pilot had more than 10,000 flying hours, and the other more than 9,000.
"Our pilots strictly comply with aviation rules," the CEO said.
He said the two people who died were passengers seated at the back of the plane.
"Please accept my deepest apology," the CEO said, bowing in front of TV cameras at the press conference.
"We'll make our utmost efforts to cope with the tragedy."
The plane, which originated in Shanghai and picked up passengers in South Korea before heading to San Francisco, had 291 passengers and 16 crew on board.
Among them, 141 were Chinese nationals, followed by 77 South Koreans, 61 Americans, one Japanese, three Indians, three Canadians, one French, one Vietnamese, three others with unidentified nationality and 16 crew.
Anxious relatives swarmed around Asiana's headquarters in Seoul, seeking details of the crash and the whereabouts of the victims.
"I'm very worried about my daughter. She called me a while ago saying she received injuries to the shoulder and legs," a middle-aged woman told journalists.
"But since then, I've heard no word from her. I wonder where she is now."
South Korean President Park Geun-Hye offered sympathies to victims and their relatives.
"I offer my deepest condolences to the victims and their relatives," her spokeswoman quoted her as saying.
"All government agencies concerned will join forces to provide all necessary assistance and resources to deal with the disaster."
A group of some 20 South Koreans including government officials and Asiana staff left on a special flight for San Francisco, the transport ministry said.
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Until the investigations are carried out and a conclusion comes about, there can only be speculations about what really happened before the crash. Some say the pilot decided to go-around but did it too late and the tail hit the tarmac before breaking up from the main body. What caused such an action from the pilot remains to be seen.
An Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 passenger jet crashed and burst into flames on Saturday as it landed short of the runway at San Francisco International Airport, killing two people and injuring
182 others.
Flight 214 had 307 people on board -- 291 passengers and 16 crew -- when it left Seoul. The aircraft apparently struck a rocky area at the water's edge short of the runway at the airport, a major international hub especially for flights to and from Asia.
"It is incredible and very lucky that we have so many survivors. But there are still many that are critically injured," said San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee, who sent condolences to the families of those killed and hurt.
The plane's tail "hit the runway and the aircraft veered to the left out of the runway," South Korea's transportation ministry said in a statement on Sunday from Seoul.
Pictures showed the tail detached from the fuselage, and the landing gear had also sheared off.
The airport was closed immediately after the crash, but two runways later reopened. Some flights were diverted to Los Angeles.
Among those on board were 77 Koreans, 141 Chinese, 61 US citizens, and one Japanese national, Asiana said in a statement.
In Seoul, Asiana Airlines CEO Yoon Young-Doo said that there was nothing wrong with the airplane.
"We purchased this airplane in March 2006... currently we understand that there are no engine or mechanical problems," he said at a press conference, adding that the two people killed were Chinese nationals.
San Francisco General Hospital said it was treating 34 patients, five of them in critical condition. Other patients had been taken to different hospitals in the area.
In total, 123 people aboard the flight were uninjured, US officials said.
Survivor Elliott Stone told CNN that as it came in to land, it appeared the plane "sped up, like the pilot knew he was short."
"And then the back end just hit and flies up in the air and everybody's head goes up to the ceiling."
Video footage showed the jet on its belly surrounded by at least six fire engines that sprayed white foam on the wreckage. Debris was scattered on the runway and in the surrounding area.
"It looked normal at first... the wheels were down," an unidentified man who witnessed the crash told CNN. "It just hit (the seawall) like that and the whole thing just collapsed immediately.
"It just pancaked immediately. The wings caught on the tarmac."
A four-member South Korean government team was also heading to inspect the site of the accident, officials in Seoul said.
One dramatic photo tweeted by a survivor showed people streaming out of the jet following the crash-landing. An inflatable slide was at the front entrance. Other emergency exits also appeared to have been used.
"I just crash landed at SFO. Tail ripped off. Most everyone seems fine. I'm ok," the passenger, David Eun, wrote on Twitter.
But another photo from above showed a more distressing scene, with most of the roof of the plane missing and the cabin seating area charred by fire. The aircraft's wings were still attached.
"I saw some passengers bleeding and being loaded onto an ambulance," another passenger, Chun Ki-Wan, told YTN TV in Seoul.
"Everything seemed to be normal before it crash-landed."
Stone said he feared for the flight crew seated in the back of the plane, which took off in Shanghai, stopped in Seoul before heading to the United States.
"They were sitting in the back end and got hammered because we landed short. And then they all fell out and it was just the most terrible thing I've seen," he said.
Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg was supposed to be on the flight with her family and three colleagues, but switched to a United flight and arrived in San Francisco some 20 minutes before the Asiana crash.
"Serious moment to give thanks," she wrote on her own Facebook page.
The White House said President Barack Obama had been briefed on the incident, noting: "His thoughts and prayers go out to the families who lost a loved one and all those affected by the crash."
Asiana is based in Seoul. The twin-engine 777 aircraft is one of the world's most popular long-distance planes, often used for flights of 12 hours or more, from one continent to another.
It was the first fatal crash involving an Asiana passenger plane since June 1993, when a Boeing 737 operated by the carrier crashed into a mountain in South Korea, killing 68.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said there was no indication that terrorism was to blame for the crash.
In Washington, National Transportation Safety Board experts flew west to investigate the crash, while the heads of the US Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration issued a joint statement thanking the first responders. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the passengers and crew of Asiana Flight 214 and their families," the statement read.
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A regretful news to hear from San Francisco. Two young lives lost and many others injured, some seriously. I pray that there will be no further fatalities in the days to come.
Budget airline Tiger Airways may be eyeing the lucrative travel market in Malaysia.
Some new destinations could include Ipoh, Kuala Terengganu and Kota Kinabalu.
The move follows its recent return to profitability, and to start afresh, the company has unveiled a new corporate identity to go along.
It said the fresh look reflects the company's "renewed purpose".
With six new aircraft expected for delivery by next March, Tiger is looking at expanding its Malaysian routes.
Speaking in Malaysia, managing director Ho Yuen Sang said the airline plans to increase frequency of its Penang-Singapore route from 14 times to 21 weekly.
The airline also plans to promote Penang as the connection hub via Singapore.
Tiger also expects passenger growth to hit a high 20 per cent for the year ending March 2014.
This is similar to what was recorded last year, driven by network expansion.
To go along with its expansion plans, the carrier has been renamed Tigerair.
Apart from just branding change, the company has been working to improve its operations, including reducing response time at its call centre.
Group CEO Koay Peng Yen said: "It's still important for us to focus on being a no-frills airline, that's what we want to be good at. (But) we also realise that it's not just about operating the airline, we want to focus on operational service excellence at the same time. So all the basic items have to be done very well, such that the customer experience - from the time you make a reservation on the website or phone app, all the way to the inflight experience and post-flight experience - all must add up to a great experience."
It has not been a great experience for Tiger over the past two years.
Its Australian operations were suspended in 2011 over safety concerns.
Overall earnings have also been dragged down by start-up losses from its associate airlines in Indonesia and the Philippines.
Paul Yong, vice president of equity research at DBS Vickers, said: "In areas like Indonesia and Philippines for Tiger Airways - where they are still new - we do expect them to be loss-making for a while. We are currently in an expansionary phase of the market whereby all the carriers are just looking to grab market share, so I think consumers can expect low fares and more choices for a while to come."
The airline recently got the green light to hive off a 60 per cent stake in Tiger Australia to Virgin Australia, and it has also been profitable for two straight quarters, after six previous quarters of losses.
Mr Yong said: "Both the current management and the interim management that Singapore Airlines previously jettisoned in, both played an important role in helping to steady the ship for Tiger Airways, particularly in Australia where they've helped operations to resume to pre-suspension levels."
DBS Vickers said Tiger has been working to boost its balance sheet, and it can look forward to better days ahead.
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A big revamp by the CEO. It is refreshing from the airline which didn't have a desirable track record. This rebranding isn't just superficial. Passenger experience will also be improved according to the CEO. Now it is more focused on making itself stand out from others, something that it should have done long ago. With this change, hopefully the fengshui of the airline will also turn for the better.
Singapore will soon become a hub for the repair and delivery of Rolls Royce engines in the region.
The British engine-maker has signed a memorandum of understanding with Singapore Airlines (SIA) to provide round-the-clock service support for its Trent aero engines.
The MOU will see Singapore become a centre for Trent 900 engine support with plans to grow capabilities to include Trent 1000 engines in the future.
SIA currently operates 83 aircraft powered by Trent engines.
The airline recently announced firm orders for 60 new aircraft to be powered by Trent engines.
SIA's low-cost subsidiary Scoot has also ordered 20 new planes powered by Trent engines in 2014.
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More business for the plant situated in Seletar. This must be one of Rolls-Royce's best decision to build a regional plant here in Singapore. SIA will also save more on maintenance cost now that the manufacturer is right at its doorstep.
Shares of Jet Airways slid as much as six percent on Tuesday amid new investor worries over whether the Abu Dhabi-based Etihad airline would get final permission to buy a stake in the private Indian carrier.
The Jet-Etihad deal, announced in April, marks the first overseas investment in an existing Indian carrier since New Delhi eased restrictions to allow foreign firms to take up to a 49 percent holding in the country's airlines.
But a request by the prime minister's office on Monday for the plan to be discussed by cabinet raised new worries about the fate of the deal. It sent shares of Jet down six percent before they retraced to trade two percent lower at 455 rupees.
Aviation minister Ajit Singh, who is reported to have threatened to resign if the deal collapses, said: "I don't see a problem in the Abu Dhabi deal going through."
Speaking to India's NDTV, he added: "Ask the prime minister's office if the deal is on hold despite being signed."
Etihad plans to pick up a 24 percent holding in Jet under the 20.5-billion-rupee ($344 million) deal that would allow the Indian carrier to reduce its hefty debt and expand its global reach by using the UAE airline's network.
But the deal, the largest foreign investment proposal in the aviation sector, faces regulatory hurdles, with various ministries raising objections over control of Jet after the deal as well as over bilateral plans for an increase in flights between India and Abu Dhabi.
Many of the new seats would go to Jet and Etihad. India's opposition has alleged that the nearly fourfold rise in flights was aimed at clinching the deal and could divert vital business from ailing state-run flagship Air India.
The Jet-Etihad deal would supply the Abu Dhabi carrier with hundreds of thousands of new passengers on its routes to Europe, Africa and West Asia as the emirate aims to become a hub for intercontinental air traffic.
Ajit Singh said Tuesday the deal's opponents were "long on politics and short on facts".
Federal cabinet secretary Ajit Seth was due to chair a high-level meeting of bureaucrats late Tuesday in a bid to iron out difficulties.
A parliamentary committee last month recommended the bilateral agreement with Abu Dhabi "be reconsidered by the government to protect our national carrier and the airports of India".
The committee charged that the 32 percent premium to Jet's April share price offered by Etihad "could be a backhanded way of obtaining access to the huge civil aviation market in India".
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Still dragging with the government needing more time to understand the deal better. One will wonder what may happen if the deal falls to go through. India wouldn't want a second case of Kingfisher.
