Singapore Airlines needs to accelerate Scoot expansion in Europe: long haul low cost Part 4

Scoot faces some critical decisions in the coming months as the Singapore Airlines (SIA) LCC subsidiary begins long haul operations. Scoot recently took delivery of its first Boeing 787 configured for long haul flights and is about to take its second long haul configured aircraft, followed by two more in the current fiscal year.

Scoot so far has only committed to one long haul route, Athens, which will launch in Jun-2017 with four weekly flights, but will be downgraded to only two weekly flights from Oct-2017. Scoot quickly needs to decide on at least two more long haul routes for its sub fleet of four long haul equipped 787-8s. Potential destinations in Europe and Hawaii have been under consideration for more than a year, but Scoot has not had any new route announcements in nine months.

Scoot has so far not considered the UK, due to overlap with SIA, and Germany, due to overlap with the SIA-Lufthansa JV. However, Norwegian's recent decision to launch London-Singapore - and other potential Norwegian routes to Singapore - significantly changes the competitive landscape, necessitating a review by the SIA Group. Berlin should also be seriously considered, despite the ramifications with Lufthansa.