NICHOLAS IONIDES & DAVID FULLBROOK / SINGAPORE
Carrier claims system - though popular with passengers - was unstable during trials
Singapore Airlines (SIA) has put on hold plans to introduce Tenzing's in-flight e-mail and internet offerings and made more drastic network cuts as it continues to suffer from a sharp fall in business following the US terrorist attacks.
The carrier says it will discontinue the e-mail service, introduced on one aircraft in April and originally planned for fleet-wide introduction within 14 months.
"The decision was taken after Tenzing, the owner of the software, said it would be reviewing its development plans in light of the prevailing economic situation," SIA says.
The carrier claims there were problems with the e-mail software and says the system was unstable during trials, although it was popular with passengers. It is now considered unlikely the service will be introduced again until at least late 2002 or 2003.
Last month it emerged that Seattle-based Tenzing, in which Airbus holds a 30% stake, was slashing its 150-strong workforce by more than half as part of a restructuring effort in the wake of the airline crisis. Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways, meanwhile, which owns 10% of Tenzing, says its plans to introduce e-mail services fleet-wide are continuing as scheduled. The system is already operational on a handful of aircraft.
The announcement came as SIA unveiled a further round of drastic network cuts that will see it suspending Singapore-Amsterdam-Chicago services, which were only introduced on 1 August.
Chicago services will be suspended between 13 January and the end of April, although it hopes to reinstate them on 1 May.
It is also cutting frequencies on Singapore-Frankfurt-New York, Singapore-Amsterdam-New York (Newark), Singapore-Taipei-Los Angeles and Singapore-Seoul-San Francisco routes.
The cuts mean SIA's total seating capacity to the USA will be reduced by 20%. The airline adds that it will continue to watch for changes and will further adjust capacity "to meet market demands".
Services to Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Hiroshima in Japan will also be reduced, leaving SIA with 47 weekly services to the country, down from 55. This translates into a 13% capacity reduction between 13 January and the end of April.
Taipei frequencies will be cut to 18 from 22 weekly from 13 November, while Perth services will be cut to 18 from 21 weekly between 3 January 2002 and 30 March 2003.
In September SIA suspended services to Karachi and Lahore in Pakistan and reduced frequencies on five other routes. It later suspended services to Kota Kinabalu and Kuching in Malaysia, as well as to Macau, while subsidiary SIA Cargo unveiled a major network revamp.
SIA has been suffering badly in recent months. In October it said its net profit for the first half ended 30 September fell 88% and warned that it could post a full-year loss, which would be the first since its establishment.
Source: Flight International
