CAPA notes conservative growth among Asia Pac FSCs

CAPA - Centre for Aviation executive chairman Peter Harbison, speaking at CAPA's Airline Fleet & Finance Summit Asia, questioned (03-Mar-2015) what is next for full-service carriers in the Asia Pacific region, noting: "If you look at the recent growth rates of these carriers, it's been almost non-existent." Mr Harbison continued: "Take a carrier like Singapore Airlines - its hardly grown, it's becoming unprofitable and so it's a whole different ballgame now…. A good airline but also very conservative in its approach." Mr Harbison added: "You've seen some fairly old legacy airlines resistant to change but also being partly forced but actively looking into a new model." Mr Harbison said these carriers are "becoming very high cost on short-haul and being increasingly challenged on long-haul routes by the Middle Eastern airlines," but noted the hybridisation of some groups - such as Singapore Airlines with Scoot, SilkAir and Tigerair - does make them, in some ways, more solid in terms of spreading risk.