Swiss ends Singapore service

Swiss ends Singapore service

By: BOONSONG KOSITCHOTETHANA

Published: 27/04/2009 at 12:00 AM

Newspaper section: Business

Swiss International Air Lines today is ending its flights between Bangkok and Singapore after decades of operation in response to the continued slump in traffic demand.
The fall in passenger traffic in the past few months has reaffirmed the airline's tentative decision made soon after the blockage of Bangkok's two airports late last year to call it quits.
The carrier's code-share agreement with Singapore Airlines (SIA) to transfer its passengers to SIA's Bangkok-Singapore flights was also a factor behind the decision, Swiss executives in Bangkok said.
Swiss's load factor on the Bangkok-Singapore route has dropped to less than 50%, below the industry's average break-even point of 65%.
The European airline operates six flights a week on the route with 228-seat Airbus 340-300 jetliners.
Bangkok-Singapore was a continuation of the Swiss flight from Zurich to Bangkok, which remains unchanged at six flights a week because of relatively strong demand.
Swiss found that passenger traffic through Bangkok from Singapore on its flights was not significant, and most of the passengers on the Bangkok-Singapore route were travelling point-to-point between the two Asian capitals.
Swiss has closed its Singapore station, signifying a complete exit from the sector, at least for now.
The code-share deal with SIA has helped Swiss to continue to capture some business on the Bangkok-Singapore sector, on which there is an oversupply of seats due to the global economic downturn and high capacities being offered by full-service and low-cost carriers.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/tourism/15750/singapore-service-scrapped