Singapore Airlines to increase flights to Mumbai

Singapore Airlines (SIA) has said that it will increase flights to Mumbai to 17 from 14 at present, as part of its regional route expansion from end of October and March 24 next year, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported, citing local press reports on Saturday. SIA said its weekly flights would also double to 14 to Guangzhou in China and increase weekly services to Bangkok to 35 from 28, 'The Straits Times' reported. Citing strong growth in regional travel, SIA said its subsidiary 'SilkAir' would also increase flights to Bangalore as well as Chengdu and Chongqing in China. SIA said that it was also seeing a pick-up in travel to Japan, after the earthquake and radiation scare of March, adding that it would resume its twice daily flight to Tokyo's Haneda Airport. The SIA flight expansion comes after the International Air Transport Association reported this week a 9.5 per cent year-on-year growth in the number of first and business class travellers and 5.5 per cent growth in economy class in May this year. On a different issue, Austalia's Jetstar is investing USD 500 million to add seven new planes to its fleet of 14 by this year-end, it said. With more planes, Jetstar would increase its routes with flights to Beijing and Ningbo in China and Hanoi in Vietnam, the report added.