Free up Asean skies!

Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Malaysia Airlines (MAS) are not about to slash fares anytime soon for the popular Singapore-KL sector despite the recent entry of budget airlines, according to The Straits Times tonight.

Competition has had minimal impact on yields and traffic, ST cited SIA chief executive officer Chew Choon Seng and MAS head Idris Jala as telling reporters on Monday on the sidelines of the inaugural Singapore Airshow Aviation Leadership Summit.

The report added that it took six years of lobbying for governments on both sides of the Causeway to clear the runway for a total of four budget flights a day between Singapore and KL, which Tiger Airways, Jetstar Asia and Malaysia's AirAsia started operating on Feb 1.

Between them, ST said SIA and MAS operate a total of 13 daily flights, offering more than 21,000 round-trip seats a week - four times the capacity of the budget boys.

Well, Sophie's World has a simple solution: Time to free up the KL-Singapore air sector completely, instead of waiting for the Asean Open Skies pact to take effect by the end of this year.

There is still a massive bottleneck for long-suffering travelers between the two countries.

Divergent flight paths

Like many things about Malaysia and Singapore, their national airlines have taken quite different paths ever since the two countries split in 1965.

The two airlines used to operate as one entity called Malaysia-Singapore Airlines before they parted ways in 1972. Since then, Singapore Airlines (SIA) has become one of the most profitable airlines in the world, while Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has had a very turbulent flight path despite the recent turnaround.

The Star has a very colourful feature on the MAS story.

But no one should blame Singapore for inheriting the international routes of MSA in the divorce settlement.

This is because Malaysia didn't want the international routes in the first place, preferring to take the 50-seat Fokkers to help link West and East Malaysia. Singapore, with no hinterland, had to go international at all cost with its inherited Boeings.

Many things have changed since then.

MAS has returned to government control following the botched privatisation exercise in the late 1990s. SIA retrenched close to 500 people in one bad year in 2003 despite many good years.

One thing remains unchanged. The stewardesses of the two airlines continue to wear their sarong kebaya, albeit by different designers.

Can everyone fly KL-Singapore? Part 2

IT's finally confirmed that Malaysia and Singapore will open up the long-protected Singapore-Kuala Lumpur air route to limited service by budget airlines.

According to The Straits Times, from Feb 1, at least one low-cost carrier from each side will be allowed to operate two daily flights - a total of four extra services a day.

The report said all restrictions on the lucrative sector will be lifted on Dec 1, 2008, to allow airlines on both sides of the Causeway to fly as often as they want between the two points. ST added that the liberalisation of one of Asia's most restricted air routes is in line with an Asean initiative to free up air links between capital cities of the 10-member bloc by December next year.

It's definitely a step in the right direction but will it make much of a difference to many long-suffering travelers of Singapore and Malaysia? For air travelers, they will see lower fare but will the cost saving be significant to the bulk of the passengers?

Budget airlines -- AirAsia of Malaysia and Tiger Airways of Singapore -- will put pressure on the national carriers but the bulk of the air rights are still lodged with the national carriers until the end of next year.

The provision for budget airlines of 16 daily flights a day represents 8 per cent of the current total number of flights between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore a week. According to the news report, Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines operate about 85 per cent of the over 200 flights a week, charging about S$400 for a return flight that lasts 45 minutes each way.

As pointed out by Sophie's World earlier, what's more important is the fall in the average airfare for the sector, not the headline-grabbing lowest fare for a few early birds.

Can everyone fly KL-Singapore?

In a surprise development late last week, Malaysia and Singapore agreed to pry open the long-protected air route between the capitals of the two neighbours to limited service by budget airlines.

The limited liberalisation came slightly earlier than expected as the two governments recently signed a pact to exclude the sector from the Competition Act despite the obvious anti-competitive nature of the move. But the opening of the sector will have to take place anyway by next year as part of the Asean open skies pact, as mentioned by Sophie's World earlier.

But will it result in an overnight plunge in the airfare for the sector, which has been monopolised by Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines for the last three decades?

The liberalisation, albeit limited, will definitely put downward pressure on airfare for the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore route.

It won't be difficult for AirAsia of Malaysia and Tiger Airways of Singapore -- the two budget airlines that will start flying the KL-Singapore route in January next year -- to undercut the two national airlines. The two national airlines had fixed the fare for shuttle flights at more than S$300 for a round-trip ticket.

But can the two no-frills players charge airfare that will be substantially cheaper than trains (er, don't bother unless you want to travel at a snail pace) and buses (ranging from S$50 to S$100 for a return ticket)?

Yes, but the cheap airfare may be set aside for a few seats in each flight. What's more important is the fall in the average airfare for the sector, not the headline-grabbing lowest fare for a few early birds.

Shed Sarong Party Girl Image

It's now clear that Singapore Airlines has no intention to change the image of its stewardesses despite the recent intense debate. The national airline said yesterday that the image of the Singapore Girl will remain although it has appointed a new marketing agency to handle its fat advertising campaign.

It's truly disappointing to leave the image intact although the Singapore Girl has been successful in personifying the image of the airline and the country. In fact, many continue to support the image although it has been subject to ridicule as well.

It doesn’t help, of course, that the Singapore Girl was created by a white man– British-born, Australian-bred adman Ian Batey – in 1972, forever sealing her fate as a Sarong Party Girl par excellence. Subservient, demure and bound by the feminine constrictions of her sarong kebaya, she promised a feast for the eyes in the skies. No wonder she took off.

*snipped*

The common perception that all Caucasians here, no matter where they come from, are overpaid booze-loving sex maniacs out to plunder our land and steal our women is partially the result of our own colonial panderings in the 1970s, when we willingly played ourselves up as creatures of the exotic East.

While our iconic maidens in sarong kebaya were whispering that they were “a great way to fly”, Singapore itself was luring tourists with brochures and ads of doe-eyed women sitting amid lush vegetation and holding baskets of fruit. In both cases, the sell was aimed at the white man, then the aspirational exemplar of big business.
The Straits Times writer Ong Soh Chin, 4 Feb 2007.

Whatever the argument, the kebaya image is no longer fresh. In fact, it looks rather similar to the kebaya uniform of the stewardesses of Malaysia Airlines.

But SIA didn't copy the Malaysian uniform. This is because the Singapore Girl was born in 1972, while the Malaysia Girl came into being in 1986.

Like their similar kebayas, the two airlines shared a common history. The two airlines came under the flag of Malaysia-Singapore Airlines for some five years before they split in 1971 due to irreconcilable differences. The airline merger lasted longer than the brief union of the two countries between 1963 and 1965.

While the two airlines have experienced vastly different fortunes since the split, it is important to maintain a unique image.

If Singapore Airlines is unwilling to tinker with its old image, perhaps Malaysia Airlines should take the bold step to do away with the outdated image of the Sarong Party Girl.