Originally Posted by
KACommuter
No, strangely enough I live in the present. I just don't see how going direct non-stop to more destinations with new fuel efficient hardware will be enough help SQ. Their market for origin-destination passengers whom they can offer non-stops to is pretty limited after all. They could launch ultra long haul non-stops to New York, San Francisco, LA, Chicago with premium services - but would they fill their aircraft?
Qingdao non-stop to SFO is not a good comparison - it has Shandung province to feed it and that's 90m people. Singapore has the state of Johor in Malaysia...
And as soon as you feed Jakarta and KL into the mix, why would passengers there not connect via (say) HK with CX instead of through Singapore?
This "so-and-so" analysis about X having X amount of people always cracks me up, because it ignores geography and a whole lot of socio-economic factors. CX has the ENTIRE Chinese market and it doesn't seem to be doing too well, eh. 1.3 billion people! Even if you talk about Guangdong province alone that's 108 million people. And you don't realise that the same issue persists on CX vs SQ. When there's JL, NH, BR, CA, CZ, MU, HU, CI, KE, OZ all being able to bring one to North America - there's no conceivable reason why one would choose CX as well. And bar the four major Chinese carriers, all the rest do give CX a run for their money for the experience.
Long-haul US flights are for O&D demand. They might be in fact, able to feed four flights if Singapore maintains its position as a financial hub in SEA. Surprisingly - that's something you might not know.
But that ignores the fact that hub-and-spoke still serves as the basis of SQ's model with Indonesia and Australia as their main feeders. While certainly geography makes SQ's position more challenging, at least they have the brains to develop other markets such as LCCs rather than be CX/KA and impose exorbitant prices, expect HKers to pay it and prevent challengers like Jetstar HK from entering their market. Which, obviously, isn't working so well.
In fact, SQ cutting its ranks is honestly expected. Parkinson's law affects all organisations, not just SQ. Even CX is going with their cuts.