Singapore Airlines to increase Gulf flights from March 15

Singapore Airlines, the national airline of Singapore, has decided to increase the number of flights to the Arab-Persian Gulf region by more than doubling its weekly flights.

Lim MeowSeng, Singapore Airlines’ general manager for the Gulf region, told a news conference that weekly flights from Singapore to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) would go up from three to seven from with effect from March 15, 2009. The move, Lim added, was intended “to tap the growing demand despite the global downturn.”

Meow-Seng Lim said Singapore Airlines expected to boost its passenger load thanks to an increase in tourism to and from the Gulf region because of lower costs of fuel. Singapore Airlines is also launching flights to Kuwait in March 2009. It already operates 21 flights to Dubai a week.

The website arabianbusiness.com quoted Meow-Seng Lim as saying at the news conference: “With the expansion, we will be operating 38 flights a week to the Gulf, of which 28 are to the United Arab Emirates alone. We are seeing growth in demand due to the growing trade links between the Gulf countries and the Far East.”

The airline, he added, was also banking on the demand for its Singapore-Dubai route by adding connecting services from the Unite Arab Emirates to Cairo. This service would return to Dubai before heading back to Singapore.

The Straits Times newspaper of Singapore had reported a few weeks ago that Singapore Airlines had issued a circular to travel agents saying that the airline would cut the numbers of flights to China, India, Australia, London and Zurich because of dwindling passenger numbers.

Singapore Airlines, which operates a hub at Singapore’s Changi Airport, flies mainly to South-east Asia, East Asia, South Asia and Australia.