Singapore Airlines will suspend 214 international flights including three to India. One of these affected flights is likely to be a Kolkata connection. If the airline withdraws one flight from Kolkata, the frequency will be down from four times a week to three. “We will ensure that capacity is allocated to match demand across the global network,” said C W Foo, General Manager (India), Singapore Airlines. According to a report in Times of India (ToI), on the Indian routes, the airline will cut one out of the four weekly flights on the Hyderabad-Singapore sector, one out of the five weekly ones on the New Delhi-Singapore sector and one out of five weeklies on the Mumbai-Singapore sector.
Certain industry sources informed that the drop in traffic in India was due to boycott from the travel agents, who have refused to sell Singapore Airlines tickets due to the latter's refusal to give commission. “We sell around 90 per cent of the airline's tickets in India. When we stopped selling Singapore Airlines tickets from December 29, 2008 the passenger load fell drastically,” stated Anil Punjabi, Chairman (East), Travel Agents' Federation of India (TAFI). |