Mumbai: Singapore Airlines groups budget arm Scoot has commenced its daily non-stop flight services to Thiruvananthapuram from Singapore even as it is set to withdraw operations from Lucknow from next month owing to weak demand on the route.
The inaugural flight took off from Singapore Tuesday with a 180-seater Airbus A320 aircraft at around 8.40 pm local time and reached Trivandrum International Airport at around 10 pm local time, the airline said in a release Wednesday.
Thiruvananthapuram is the first of the three new cities in India that Scoot will launch this year. Coimbatore and Visakhapatnam are other destinations, it said.
Earlier, group's another subsidiary, SilkAir was operating on the Singapore-Thiruvananthapuram route with five-times per week services.
"The transfer of SilkAirs services to Scoot is intended to further optimise the SIA Groups resources and present a better match of capacity to demand. Scoot is well- poised to provide competitive pricing and strengthen Scoots presence in the India market," said Vinod Kannan, chief commercial officer, Scoot.
Scoot currently flies to eight cities in the country - Amritsar, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Lucknow, Tiruchirappalli and Thiruvananthapuram.
However, while the services to Lucknow will be discontinued after June 29, the services on the Singapore- Bengaluru route will be operated by the parent Singapore Airlines, effective May 16, the airline said.
The new flight will also provide connectivity to passengers beyond Singapore as well, it added.
"Singapore is one of the preferred destinations for Indians, for business and leisure tourism, and this new route will definitely strengthen the connectivity between the countries," said Johanes Ong, general manager, Scoot India.