The additional destinations include Honolulu, Scoot’s maiden USA destination, and Harbin in Northeast China. While the remaining three are short-haul destinations, namely Kuching and Kuantan in Malaysia, and Palembang in Indonesia.
On Tuesday, Singapore-based budget airlines Scoot and Tigerair finally announced their intention to pursue a single brand and operating license under the enhanced Scoot brand.
Since Wednesday, July 26, all Tigerair flights has been operating under the Scoot brand, while Scoot flights will operate under the TR flight designator code as the two companies mark the completion of the Scoot-Tigerair integration process that began last May when the airlines were brought under a common holding company, Budget Aviation Holdings.
“For the past six months we have already exposing all of our Tigerair market to the Scoot brand,” said Lee Lik Hsin, Scoot chief executive. “We are confident that we have the right platform and the right brand as we take it forward. So, awareness of course is one thing, and building trust and confidence to the brand is another, but we are confident that we can do it.”
Coupled with the addition of the previous Tigerair network, the five new services will bring Scoot’s total destination count to 65 across 18 countries. The Scoot chief executive also said that that the budget airline aims to double its current fleet size of 37 planes within the next five years, which right now is made up of 23 Airbus A320s for shorter regional destinations and 14 Boeing 787 Dreamliners for the long-haul flights.
In addition to the single Scoot brand, the airline also introduced a refreshed look on its “Scootees” flight crew, who will be donning new uniform designs, along with a new tagline for the airline: ‘Escape the Ordinary’.
“Scoot’s new tagline is reflective of our growth as an airline brand,” said Mr Lee. “It is more relevant to the global market now that our network has grown as it is aspirational to our inner wanderlust, and inspires us to travel and explore the world.”
Furthermore, to celebrate the merger, special one-way promotional fares are available from Scoot as low as P1,699 to Singapore, P3,099 to Bangkok, P4,699 to Malé, P5,499 to Melbourne/Sydney, P10,599 to Athens
No slots in Manila, Cebu
However, despite disclosing five new destinations, doubling the fleet, and expanding to new areas under a single brand, the Scoot chief executive said that there are no immediate plans to add new routes to the Philippines as of now.
“At this point in time we have no plans to add new routes to the Philippines. But as i said we have a high growth trajectory; there are many airplanes coming in, therefore we need to find places to fly those airplanes to.” said Lee. “There are many constraints in expanding to the Philippines from an aviation perspective. Slots constraint is very significant at key airports like Manila and Cebu.”
An airline landing slot, takeoff slot, or airport slot is a right granted by a specific airport, which allows the slot holder to schedule a landing or departure during a specific time period.
