Sigapore looks for new aircraft

Singapore Airlines, the world’s second-largest airline by market value, said on Thursday it has asked aircraft builders to bid for new plane orders it may place later this year.
The carrier said it made the request to airframe manufacturers Boeing and Airbus for planes to cover its medium-haul and regional needs over coming years.
“The make-up of the global network is changing, with some medium-haul and regional routes requiring larger capacity aircraft while some long-haul markets have thinner traffic volumes,” the airline said in a statement.
Some long-range routes have “thinner traffic volumes”, the airline said, apparently referring to services that did not attract enough passengers to fill its Boeing 777s, the smallest plane it has available for many routes.
Singapore Airlines has long wanted an airliner like Boeing’s proposed 7E7, as this aircraft would be smaller than the 777.
Singapore Airlines’ fleet currently consists of 84 aircraft, made up of 30 B747-400s, 51 B777s and three A340-500s.
The 57-percent government-owned carrier has 20 aircraft on firm order, including eight B777s, two A340-500s which are due to enter the fleet in the next two months and 10 A380 aircraft. It has also placed options for 45 more aircraft.
Airlines in Asia are recovering from an industry slump wrought by the SARS outbreak in April to June of last year, and have begun to restore capacity. But a bird flu outbreak sweeping parts of Asia has clouded the outlook.
Singapore Airlines, whose market value of around USD$8 billion ranks it second in the world behind Southwest Airlines, slashed capacity by a third in response to SARS, while cutting wages and axing nearly 600 staff.
t more than doubled profits in the three months to December and said it expects more passengers to travel in the next six months than over the same period a year earlier unless the bird flu outbreak worsens or there is an act of terror.
The airline has said it plans to increase capacity by more than 10 percent in 2004 to respond to rebounding passenger traffic following the waning of the SARS epidemic.