Gunship
2nd Mar 2005, 21:40
Cape Town - Singapore Airlines is building market share on its South African routes and SAA might find it difficult to catch up when it eventually adds Singapore to its list of destinations, according to industry sources.
A travel industry source compared the situation to that in New Zealand where, he said, Singapore Airlines dominated the routes between Singapore, Auckland and Christchurch with "three flights a day to a country of 4 million people, making it impossible for New Zealand Airlines to catch up".
But Will Puk, chief executive of the Sure Travel group of franchised travel agents, said two-way demand was now so high that any extra capacity would be welcomed. And the entry of SAA would probably cause the total market to grow.
The two airlines are expected to co-operate and carry each other's passengers under codesharing arrangements, after SAA joins Singapore Airlines in the Star Alliance of international airlines later this year.
Teo Lay Cheng, Singapore Airlines' manager for public affairs, said close co-operation was probably a year or 18 months away.
Chris Romaniello, the marketing executive in South Africa, and Andrew Chee, Singapore Airlines' manager in Cape Town, said its new weekly non-stop flight to Cape Town that had been added to the daily flights to Johannesburg was doing well but demand for business class still needed building up.
Puk pointed out that Cape Town was mainly a tourist destination for visitors from the Far East, while Johannesburg was the main business destination.
The non-stop flight from Cape Town on Wednesday last week was crowded with returning Chinese tourists, mostly in economy class.
And although South Africans regard Singapore as a destination for shopping, most of the Chinese were taking back purchases including vacuum-packed meat, wine and African curios.
Singapore is a popular stop-over destination for South Africans on the way to other parts of Asia, Australia or New Zealand. But the Singapore tourism authority is encouraging more tourists to regard it as a destination in its own right.
The Chinese New Year procession through the city, held last Saturday, was twice the size of the previous year's and is being promoted as an additional attraction for international tourists.
But fears that the tsunami would have killed off tourism to Thailand and other destinations reached through Singapore seem to be groundless.
Daphne Seigal, former sales and marketing manager at Klein Constantia wine estate, said her hotel in Thailand's Phuket region seemed to back to normal.
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=561&fArticleId=2424509
A travel industry source compared the situation to that in New Zealand where, he said, Singapore Airlines dominated the routes between Singapore, Auckland and Christchurch with "three flights a day to a country of 4 million people, making it impossible for New Zealand Airlines to catch up".
But Will Puk, chief executive of the Sure Travel group of franchised travel agents, said two-way demand was now so high that any extra capacity would be welcomed. And the entry of SAA would probably cause the total market to grow.
The two airlines are expected to co-operate and carry each other's passengers under codesharing arrangements, after SAA joins Singapore Airlines in the Star Alliance of international airlines later this year.
Teo Lay Cheng, Singapore Airlines' manager for public affairs, said close co-operation was probably a year or 18 months away.
Chris Romaniello, the marketing executive in South Africa, and Andrew Chee, Singapore Airlines' manager in Cape Town, said its new weekly non-stop flight to Cape Town that had been added to the daily flights to Johannesburg was doing well but demand for business class still needed building up.
Puk pointed out that Cape Town was mainly a tourist destination for visitors from the Far East, while Johannesburg was the main business destination.
The non-stop flight from Cape Town on Wednesday last week was crowded with returning Chinese tourists, mostly in economy class.
And although South Africans regard Singapore as a destination for shopping, most of the Chinese were taking back purchases including vacuum-packed meat, wine and African curios.
Singapore is a popular stop-over destination for South Africans on the way to other parts of Asia, Australia or New Zealand. But the Singapore tourism authority is encouraging more tourists to regard it as a destination in its own right.
The Chinese New Year procession through the city, held last Saturday, was twice the size of the previous year's and is being promoted as an additional attraction for international tourists.
But fears that the tsunami would have killed off tourism to Thailand and other destinations reached through Singapore seem to be groundless.
Daphne Seigal, former sales and marketing manager at Klein Constantia wine estate, said her hotel in Thailand's Phuket region seemed to back to normal.
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=561&fArticleId=2424509