India Okays SIA To Operate A380 Jets

Friday, 21st March 2014 at 10:51am

The government of India has finally approved the request made by Singapore Airlines to allow the carrier to operate at least one of its fleet of A380 jumbo aircraft on routes between Singapore and major destinations in the country.

The go signal given by the government to the airline will pave the way to other airlines who also made similar request in recent years. UAE's Emirates and Germany's Lufthansa are the other two major airlines who were interested to operate their respective fleet of the A380 super jumbo jets into India.

Prior to the approval, India has not allowed any foreign-based carrier to operate its fleet of the 4-engine, double-deck, wide-body aircraft into the country to protect the commercial interests of local airlines.

The country currently hosts to four airports that are capable of handling jumbo jets as large as A380. These include Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Mumbai. Other airports like Kolkata, Cochin and Chennai are now undergoing expansion to accommodate bigger aircraft such as the jumbo A380.

The signing of the agreement was carried out between the government of India and officials from Singapore Airlines during the Hyderabad air show last week.

The use of the jumbo A380 on selected routes between Indian cities and Singapore will greatly affect other airlines plying the routes. The jumbo jet will allow SIA to carry as many passengers as they can with a single aircraft and, therefore, fewer flights resulting to savings on operating costs.

The Indian government and its Singaporean counterpart signed a bilateral agreement in April last year allowing the latter's carriers to increase capacity by 10% per week on routes between the two countries. SIA has reportedly almost exhausted its seat entitlements between the two countries and the approval it has received from the Indian government recently will enable it to replace smaller aircraft with larger planes.

While airports hosting A380 jet operations are seen to gain from it, industry analysts believed that local airlines, including the state-owned Air India, will be greatly affected in the short term. The introduction of A380 service on a certain route will definitely create a temporary setback to all airlines using that route. It added, however, that the temporary setback will only last in one to two years.

Air India is not alarmed by the government's decision to allow SIA to use its fleet of A380 aircraft into India. It is confident that it would be able to withstand the impact as it has its own captive market.

Singapore Airlines has 19 A380 aircraft currently in service with another 5 on orders.

By: Pete Lee.