Singapore Airlines CEO Update

Transcript

Goh Choon Phong:As you are aware, we ordered more A350s over the last few years, and these early deliveries of the A350s are for long-range operations. So we have indeed announced our operations to Amsterdam and recently also to Düsseldorf. So this A350 will be largely for long-haul operations. The non-stop operations is important for us. We reluctantly stopped the A340-500 operations to New York and Los Angeles because it was operating with a 4-engine aircraft, as you know, and consuming too much fuel, and it was not going to be viable. So therefore, we discontinued that. And the A350-900? We sold the aircraft back to Airbus, and then we were actually discussing with the manufacturers, both OEMs, Boeing and Airbus, to try to develop something that is more commercially viable for us to operate. And we are glad that we are able to now conclude this deal with Airbus with the A350 Ultra Long Range, and that will allow us to have non-stops to— We mentioned that we'll resume New York. Los Angeles, and one more point because all 7 aircraft will be delivered in 2018. It's been getting very good response, and the latest month in September we are seeing mid-80s. That's very good. Year-wise too, we are actually quite delighted with the year achievement of the premium economy. We don't give up exact year number, of course. There are actually strategic projects. We have gone beyond traditionally being focused almost entirely on the Singapore hub to now establish hubs outside Singapore, which is India, Vistara India, as well as not Scoot in Bangkok. These are strategic long-term projects. Starting an airline is never easy, so— but we believe that the long-term potential of both markets are quite immense, and we believe that we will be able to make it work. Well, we are optimistic about Scoot's outlook. Scoot has gotten very good acceptance by the market, and people have very good comments on Scoot's operations as well as taking flights on Scoot. And with the transition into a new technology aircraft, obviously it will be much more cost-effective. So yes, we are optimistic. The transition for Singapore Airlines, actually, firstly, I think we continue to focus on improving our products with all these new aircraft. As well as new products that we're going to introduce on our planes. And secondly, we continue to make sure that we provide excellent service to our customers. We've introduced the customer experience management system, which is a very comprehensive end-to-end system that would allow all our touchpoints to provide proactive, personalized service to our customers. And also, we continue to push the network part of it, which is Also, not just our organic growth through this new aircraft that we mentioned, but also strong partnerships. The latest was the announcement that we have with Lufthansa Airlines. But beyond that, I think the key important thing is really a transformation that we're doing with respect to the business model itself, moving on from being entirely focused on the full-service segment to one that has a portfolio of carriers catering to virtually all aspects of the travel segments. And secondly, to moving from focusing just on the Singapore hub to multi-hub hubs, as we mentioned earlier. And thirdly, moving from just being focused on a core airline business to one that also includes new revenues and adjacent businesses such as the Airbus Asia Training Centre. Thank you, Goh.

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