Mumbai gets first A350 aircraft from Singapore Airlines

The SIA Group, the parent company of Singapore Airlines, which operates 175 weekly flights out of India, including 17 weekly Singapore Airlines flights from Mumbai, said it will replace the ageing Boeing 777s with the modern A350s in the Mumbai-Singapore sector from tomorrow.

The airline, which way back in 1992 had tried to enter the country with the Tatas, refused to speculate on whether it is interested in the national carrier Air India, which has been put on block for privatisation.

"As a policy we don't respond to market speculation," was all Singapore Airlines India general manager David Lim would say when sought his company's views on the government's move to disinvest the debt-ridden airline.

He also announced discount fares as part of Singapore Airlines' 70th anniversary, starting from Rs 22,070, to the city-state in Southeast Asia.

The new 253-seater wide-body plane, which is youngest aircraft in the industry now, will have 42 business class seats, 24 premium economy and 187 economy seats, while the 777 was carrying 263 passengers.

Lim said Mumbai is the first city to have A350 deployed, and said Delhi may get the same in a year's time.

He said the airline will continue to operate the larger A380s from Mumbai in the evening peak hours.

It operates three flights out of Mumbai and a similar number into the city a day, making it the biggest market for the airline in the country.

"Mumbai will be the 16th destination within our network to receive the Airbus A350-900 aircraft. The daily scheduled Singapore Airlines flight SQ421 will be served by this new aircraft and the inaugural A350 service will depart from Chhatrapati Shivaji international airport, Mumbai at 1145 hrs tomorrow," Lim said.

Asked about the lower seat numbers making it lose passengers, he said the marginally lower seating capacity will be taken care of by the higher number of business class and the introduction of the premium economy class.

So, from a revenue perspective it will serve us better. Then there is the lower airport charges since A350 is lighter than the 777 and also more fuel efficient, he said.

Singapore Airlines, which has a bilateral rights for 27,000 seats a week, connects 17 cities in the country and enjoys more than 50 per cent market share in the India- Singapore sector, while the six domestic airlines have only 80 flights a week.

Singapore Airlines, being the launch customer, took delivery of its first A350-900 in March 2016 and now has 15 of the aircraft type in its fleet, with another 52 on firm order, including seven of an ultra-long-range A350-900 ULR variant whose deliveries will begin in 2018.