China and Singapore will allow their airlines to operate 75% more passenger flights and twice the number of cargo services under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on 25 February to expand capacity under their air services agreement.
"This will result in more air services being mounted between Singapore and various cities in China thereby enhancing business and people-to-people contact," says Singapore transport ministry permanent secretary Alan Chan in a statement from the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore.
Singapore Airlines (SIA) already plans to increase its Boeing 777 services to Shanghai by two to 12 weekly at the end of March.
Chinese carriers Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, China Southwest Airlines and Yunnan Airlines now connect Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Kunming, Shanghai and Xiamen to Singapore with passenger services only.
SIA and its regional subsidiary SilkAir now fly passenger and cargo services to all these cities except Chengdu.
Over the past seven years, CAAS reports, passenger and cargo services between the two countries have risen 14% and 21% respectively.
Source: Flight Daily News
