Scoot selects Sydney for inaugural service
The Asian budget carrier Scoot has revealed that its first route will be between Sydney and Singapore.
From mid-next year the long-haul budget airline, owned by Singapore Airlines, will operate a 402-seat daily flight between Sydney and Singapore.
Scoot will offer fares about 40% lower than present operators and will target the young and the adventurous, Scoot CEO Campbell Wilson said.
The airline’s foray into the Australian market came the same day as Virgin Australia won final approval from the competition regulator for an alliance with Singapore Airlines. The deal is the final plank of Virgin’s international strategy aimed at snaring a bigger share of the lucrative business travel market from Qantas.
Scoot’s first destinations will include Australasia and China, with other destinations to be announced in the future.
Mr Wilson said, “We have seen in all of the markets that no frills carriers have entered whether it be short haul or long haul, that they’ve grown the market. Sydney has a huge untapped potential for inbound and outbound no frills travellers and we will deliver that.”
NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell said the influx of tourists on Scoot’s daily flights would inject about $150 million a year into the state’s economy. “This is a significant step towards our goal of doubling overnight tourism expenditure by 2020,” Mr O’Farrell said.
The medium to long-haul airline will start with a fleet of four 402-seat Boeing 777-200s, which it is buying from from its parent, Singapore Airlines. It plans to increase its fleet to 14 aircraft by 2015.
According to the tourism body Destination NSW, 92,000 people from Singapore visited NSW last financial year, up more than 16% from the year before.
Scoot said it expected to receive its Air Operator’s Certificate from the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore in the first quarter of next year, and has its eyes set on eventually travelling to India, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. It will consider widening its reach, possibly flying to destinations such as Melbourne.
Singapore Airlines also has a cornerstone stake in Tiger Airways, which Mr Wilson described as a ”very different animal” to Scoot.
Mr Wilson refers to the pointy end of Scoot’s Boeing 777-200 fleet as a premium cabin to avoid the association with international business class of full-service airlines. “We haven’t decided what we’re going to call it,” Mr Wilson admits. “We want to get away from the presumption that it’s a full-service business class, but we also want to ensure it’s sufficiently differentiated from the economy so that people will see the value in it.”
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