Scoot wants India air-service agreement to offer more airports

Scoot seeks expansion in India with new airports and markets under bilateral agreements, anticipating changes soon.

Singapore International Airline’s low-cost arm Scoot wants new airports and markets to be added in India’s air-service agreements, allowing it to expand India network. “There are limitations between India and Singapore in the ‘bilaterals.’ It doesn’t include new airports. There are markets that are growing and have potential, but are not included in the agreement. If and when that changes, we will be ready,” said Brian Torrey, General Manager – India and West Asia at Scoot, during a media interaction here. Airlines from Singapore have exhausted the number of seats they are allowed to deploy on Indian routes under the bilateral agreement.

He was hopeful that there will be “some changes soon”.

Scoot flies to six destinations, of which five are in southern parts of India. These include Chennai, Coimbatore, Thiruvananthpuram, Trichy, Vishakhapatnam and Amritsar. Singapore Airlines flies to a total of seven airports in the bigger metro cities which are Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kochi and Kolkata. The demand from Scoot for a revision in bilateral rights comes at a time the national capital region and Mumbai metropolitan region will each get their second airports in Noida and Navi Mumbai early next year. Mr Torrey called Delhi and Mumbai “dream destinations” and lamented that the airline was restricted due to the unavailability of additional seat capacity. India is Scoot’s third biggest market after Singapore and China. Sixty percent of the traffic from India comprised travellers who flew to Singapore as their final destination, while the remaining 40% were those who connected onwards and the latter segment has seen a growth since COVID-19, Mr. Torrey said.