Budget airline Scoot to start Hong Kong-Singapore flights
The Singaporean carrier seeks to profit from the rising popularity of regional budget airlines
Scoot, a Singaporean long-haul low-cost carrier, will join the competitive Hong Kong-Singapore route from November, banking on the growing popularity of budget airlines in Asia.
The airline will compete with its parent Singapore Airlines and sister company Tigerair on this route, alongside Cathay Pacific Airways and United Airlines. The leg is already served by five carriers with more than 20 return services a day.
"We have had the same situation on the Singapore-Bangkok and Singapore-Sydney routes where we are doing quite well," Scoot chief executive Campbell Wilson said yesterday.
Hong Kong has long been on the radar but Scoot has to wait until the arrival of its sixth Boeing 777 plane in November to kick off the service.
Scoot will operate an early-morning flight from Hong Kong to Singapore and return with a red-eye flight from November 15. The indicative airfare for the new service is HK$750 per trip, which Scoot says is 70 per cent cheaper than full-service carriers and 30 per cent lower than other low-cost carriers.
The promotional fares would be even lower, depending on the number of clicks that their Facebook website is able to register from Hong Kong.