Singapore Airline Scoot to Start Singapore - Amritsar Flight from May 24.

Eyes Punjabi diaspora especially in Singapore & Australia

April 26, 2016 - There is some good news for Punjabis to travel to Sri Guru Ram Das Ji International Airport in Amritsar. Scoot, the low cost and medium haul subsidiary of the Singapore Airlines Group (SIA) announced that the company will start flight service from Singapore to Amritsar and Chennai from May 24, 2016, and Jaipur from October, offering low fares. To begin with, flights to Amritsar will operate three times a week on Tues, Thurs and Saturday. The airline plans to scale up services to Amritsar to four time a week from July 4. While Chennai and Jaipur will have 335-seater Boeing 787-800 Dreamliner aircraft, services to Amritsar will be operated with a 375-seater Boeing 787-900 Dreamliner aircraft.

According to a company release published in various news outlets, Bharath Mahadevan, India head of Scoot, said, "The SIA Group is the largest foreign airline in India in terms of reach as Singapore Air, Scoot, Silk and Tiger will fly to 15 cities in India. This is the largest after Air India (in terms of offering direct international flights out Indian cities)."Scoot has large part of its operations to Australia and China besides other regions and countries.

To mark its launch in India, Scoot is offering a limited-time promotion from now till April 28 for guests booking from India to destinations across its network. One-way economy fares from Amritsar start from US$ 64 to Singapore and US$ 189 to Sydney, besides US$ 179 and US$ 459 for ScootBiz to Singapore and Sydney, respectively.

Scoot Amritsar Flight Schedule (Tues, Thurs, Saturday)

TZ508 Singapore (SIN) 9:00am Departure => Amritsar (ATQ) 12:10pm Arrival
TZ507 Amritsar (ATQ) 13:20pm Departure => Singapore (SIN) 21:45pm Arrival

Why Amritsar as its future destination

A Singapore Airline group carrier will be flying to Amritsar after 8 years. It used to operate three flights a week from 2004 to 2008. According to Mr. Mahadevan, Singapore airline pulled out of this route in 2008 due to lower yields and this time Scoot expects to reverse the fortune. The load factor was good from Amritsar at about 70% but yield was low, so the full service carrier had to pull out. There was a need to a low-cost service to Amritsar which will be fulfilled by Scoot. "Mahadevan said in an interview to The Hindu newspaper.

Malindo Air, in November 2015 also started its three times a week, Kuala Lumpur-Amritsar flight with onward connectivity to many South East Asian destinations including Perth in Australia, Singapore, Bangkok and Hong Kong. Malindo is also a low cost airline from Malaysia. Due to excellent response to its flight, airline is increasing its frequency to daily flight from May 1st onwards. In 2009, Qatar Airways had also started Doha-Amritsar flight as four days a week, but within couple of months its frequency was increased to daily flight due to high load factor from Amritsar. Qatar flight is one of the most popular flight from Amritsar offering connections to more than 100 destinations all over the world.

Scoot connectivity with many International destinations

Scoot flight is going to increase international flight options for Punjabis to travel to Amritsar especially from Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and west coast cities of US and Canada. Let us look at few destinations that will benefit the most from this flight.

For full details on Scoot, its destinations and schedule, please visit:
http://www.flyscoot.com/index.php/en/routemap
http://www.flyscoot.com/index.php/en/book-flights/scoot-schedules.html

Flyscoot connectivity to Australia

The biggest reason for Scoot to start Amritsar flight is to penetrate into Amritsar - Australia route through the Singapore hub with low-cost service. Amritsar passengers would be able to connect onwards from Singapore on all four airlines - Singapore Airlines, SilkAir, Scoot and Tiger to Australia. It operates daily flights from Singapore to Melbourne and Sydney that has the largest Punjabi population. According to Scoot website, they partner with many other airlines including its major stakeholder Singapore Airliners to offer wide choice of destinations. You can also scoot via Sydney, Perth or Gold Coast to more Australian destinations with its Australian partner Virgin Australia. Flight from Amritsar to Melbourne has short layover but from Melbourne and Sydney to Amritsar has a long layover of about 12 hours at Singapore. But Scoot offers flights with its partner Singapore Airlines that operates multiple flights daily to Australia. Booking of flights with Singapore airlines is current not available on Scoot website but fares with partner airlines will be available in the near future.

Flight (140K) Other International destinations

Even though Scoot do not fly to USA and Canada, you can travel from Singapore onwards to almost all of Singapore Airlines international destinations that includes Los Angeles and San Francisco. Singapore Air also flies to Vancouver with its Star Alliance code share partner Air Canada. So the large population of Punjabis in areas surrounding Vancouver will be able to connect on Singapore and Scoot. Currently, Scoot website do not list these destinations for booking but the group will definitely need to use the huge potential for this sector. Current list of connections with Singapore Air and Silk Air is available on Scoot website.
http://www.flyscoot.com/index.php/en/interline-sq-mi

Offers 40 to 50 p.c. lower fares

Scoot fares are 40 to 50 p.c. lower than any full service carrier even if one add food and baggage charges. Booking of flights from Amritsar to Melbourne or Sydney on its website is currently showing one way fares as low as USD 225 and return fares as low as USD 425. For booking and more details on the fares, please visit the airline website.
http://www.flyscoot.com/index.php/en/au-india-launch.html

Amritsar Airport with Immense Future Potential

Scoot's arrival is set to bring a positive change to Amritsar Airport. While on one hand, there will be a steady increase in the number of domestic flights to Amritsar, this budget service by the SIA group is also going to increase international flight options from the Airport. Punjabis should take full advantage of this and take the six hour nonstop flight, visit the beautiful city of Singapore and travel onwards to others international destinations. Recent announcements by these low cost airlines clearly shows that they all want to compete for the large number of Punjabi passengers from this region flying to Australia, New Zealand, Europe, USA and Canada.

Appeal to all Punjabis to promote Amritsar Airport

Amritsar is the Supreme spiritual center of not only Sikhs but people of other religion. We all should promote Sri Guru Ram Das Ji International airport as Amritsar is the religious and political center of the Sikhs and the fourth Guru had strong desire to develop Amritsar as commercial hub along with religious center. That is why, he got settled 52 different trades and Harmandir Sahib is the only place in the world where nearly one lakh people come daily from all over the Globe. We all need to appeal, contact and write to other airlines such as Lufthansa, British Airways, and Air Canada to add service to Europe, Canada and USA. With more direct flights, Cargo especially vegetables, flowers and fruits will be exported from Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. Amritsar airport will also earn huge profits and also help the export business in the region.

For more details on Amritsar Airport past, present, future and flights, please watch the video: