singapore hotel: Singapore Airlines cutting back on A380 services to Australia

‘; var fr = document.getElementById(adID); setHash(fr, hash); fr.body = body; var doc = getFrameDocument(fr); doc.open(); doc.write(body); setTimeout(function() closeDoc(getFrameDocument(document.getElementById(adID))), 2000); } function renderJIFAdWithInterim(holderID, adID, srcUrl, width, height, hash, bodyAttributes) setHash(document.getElementById(holderID), hash); document.dcdAdsR.push(adID); document.write(”); function renderIJAd(holderID, adID, srcUrl, hash) document.dcdAdsAA.push(holderID); setHash(document.getElementById(holderID), hash); document.write(” + ‘ript’); function renderJAd(holderID, adID, srcUrl, hash) document.dcdAdsAA.push(holderID); setHash(document.getElementById(holderID), hash); document.dcdAdsH.push(holderID); document.dcdAdsI.push(adID); document.dcdAdsU.push(srcUrl); function er_showAd() var regex = new RegExp(“externalReferrer=(.*?)(; function isHome() var loc = “” + window.location; loc = loc.replace(“//”, “”); var tokens = loc.split(“/”); if (tokens.length == 1) return true; else if (tokens.length == 2) if (tokens[1].trim().length == 0) return true; return false; function checkAds(checkStrings) var cs = checkStrings.split(‘,’); for (var i = 0; i 0 cAd.innerHTML.indexOf(c) 0) document.dcdAdsAI.push(cAd.hash); cAd.style.display =’none’; } if (!ie) for (var i = 0; i 0 doc.body.innerHTML.indexOf(c) 0) document.dcdAdsAI.push(fr.hash); fr.style.display =’none’; } } } if (document.dcdAdsAI.length 0 || document.dcdAdsAG.length 0) var pingServerParams = “i=”; var sep = “”; for (var i=0;i 0) var pingServerUrl = “/action/pingServerAction?” + document.pingServerAdParams; var xmlHttp = null; try xmlHttp = new XMLHttpRequest(); catch(e) try xmlHttp = new ActiveXObject(“Microsoft.XMLHttp”); catch(e) xmlHttp = null; if (xmlHttp != null) xmlHttp.open( “GET”, pingServerUrl, true); xmlHttp.send( null ); function initAds(log) for (var i=0;i 0) doc.removeChild(doc.childNodes[0]); doc.open(); var newBody = fr.body; if (getCurrentOrd(newBody) != “” ) newBody = newBody.replace(“;ord=”+getCurrentOrd(newBody), “;ord=” + Math.floor(100000000*Math.random())); else newBody = newBody.replace(“;ord=”, “;ord=” + Math.floor(100000000*Math.random())); doc.write(newBody); document.dcdsAdsToClose.push(fr.id); } else var newSrc = fr.src; if (getCurrentOrd(newSrc) != “” ) newSrc = newSrc.replace(“;ord=”+getCurrentOrd(newSrc), “;ord=” + Math.floor(100000000*Math.random())); else newSrc = newSrc.replace(“;ord=”, “;ord=” + Math.floor(100000000*Math.random())); fr.src = newSrc; } } if (document.dcdsAdsToClose.length 0) setTimeout(function() closeOpenDocuments(document.dcdsAdsToClose), 500); } }; var ie = isIE(); if(ie typeof String.prototype.trim !== ‘function’) String.prototype.trim = function() s+$/g, ”); ; document.dcdAdsH = new Array(); document.dcdAdsI = new Array(); document.dcdAdsU = new Array(); document.dcdAdsR = new Array(); document.dcdAdsEH = new Array(); document.dcdAdsE = new Array(); document.dcdAdsEC = new Array(); document.dcdAdsAA = new Array(); document.dcdAdsAI = new Array(); document.dcdAdsAG = new Array(); document.dcdAdsToClose = new Array(); document.igCount = 0; document.tCount = 0; var dcOrd = Math.floor(100000000*Math.random()); document.dcAdsCParams = “”; var savValue = getAdCookie(“sav”); if (savValue != null savValue.length 2) document.dcAdsCParams = savValue + “;”; document.dcAdsCParams += “csub=csub;”; var aamCookie=function(e,t)var i=document.cookie,n=””;return i.indexOf(e)-1(n=”u=”+i.split(e+”=”)[1].split(“;”)[0]+”;”),i.indexOf(t)-1(n=n+decodeURIComponent(i.split(t+”=”)[1].split(“;”)[0])+”;”),n(“aam_did”,”aam_dest_dfp_legacy”);

The 777-300ERs that will be deployed on the Sydney and Melbourne flights have 278 seats, versus the 471 available on Singapore Airlines’s A380s.

The smaller aircraft also lacks the spacious first class suites available on the A380. However, Singapore Airlines will maintain its frequencies of four flights a day from Singapore to Sydney and to Melbourne.

The spokeswoman could not comment on whether the A380 services would be reinstated in the future.

Singapore Airlines has been struggling to fill seats on flights to Australia after a steep increase in capacity, with its load factor on flights to the South West Pacific region falling to 74.3 per cent in March from 77.4 per cent last year.

Qantas, facing similar issues, in February announced it would cancel flights from Perth to Singapore and reduce the size of aircraft on its Sydney-Singapore and Brisbane-Singapore routes to A330s from larger 747s.

Falling yields

The overcapacity on the Australia-Singapore route, also serviced by budget carriers Jetstar, Scoot and Tigerair, has led to a decline in yields, or returns on fares.

Singapore Airlines is offering economy-class return fares from Sydney to Singapore from $746, while Qantas has fares of $699 on offer on the route.

The New Zealand-Singapore direct market is far less competitive. The Singapore Competition Commission has approved a proposed alliance between Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand on the route.

The regulator found the alliance, which is meant to help the carriers better compete against the Qantas/Emirates partnership, could raise competition concerns but those would be offset by net economic benefits to Singapore.

Jetstar, the only competition to Singapore Airlines on the Auckland-Singapore route, announced it would abandon the route from July after the Singapore Airlines/Air NZ alliance was proposed in January.

Air NZ hasn’t been flying the Auckland-Singapore route but will reintroduce services as part of the alliance.

The Singapore Airlines/Air NZ alliance is still subject to approval from New Zealand’s Ministry of Transport.

Tourism New Zealand has argued in favour of the alliance despite Jetstar’s decision to exit the Auckland-Singapore route, saying the overall capacity increase as a result of the alliance will have a significant net benefit to New Zealand.