Singapore Airlines will increase capacity between Hong Kong and Singapore by 15 per cent next month, reflecting growing demand for business and leisure travel following the opening of the casino resort and theme park on Sentosa island.
The five daily flights will be increased to six starting May 27, a resumption to pre-financial crisis levels.
'We've seen double-digit growth in travel demand in the first quarter from the same period last year,' David Lim Chee Seng, the airline's Hong Kong general manager, said at a media briefing yesterday.
The opening of the casino resort and the Universal Studios theme park has attracted more tourists and Singapore hopes to get 17 million visitors a year, generating more than US$21 billion by 2015, up from 9.7 million visitors last year.
Three of the six flights will continue using the Airbus 380 jumbo jet, while the other three will use refitted Boeing 777-200s starting May 29.
The newly renovated aircraft, four to eight years old, will have first-class seats removed in order to make room for wider, although fewer, business-class seats. The new configuration has 38 business seats and 228 economy ones. This compares with 12 first-class seats, 42 business seats and 234 in the back in the old configuration.
The three A380 flights continue to provide a first-class suite. Lim said filling up first-class seats was challenging as on average the load factor for the front-end cabin is 40 per cent to 50 per cent, compared with more than 80 per cent overall. The refitted B777-200 will also serve New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore from Singapore.