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Rather than rest on those rankings or trim passenger amenities as its U.S. rivals are doing, Singapore Air plans to spend $100 million by June to improve its business cabins, mainly by adding beds on every long-haul plane in the fleet. Despite these investments--and unlike most of its competitors--government-backed SIA is making good money. Profit of $358 million made it the second most profitable passenger airline in the world in 2001, behind only Southwest Airlines ($511 million). For the six months ending last September, the latest period reported, profit was $443 million (at least...
Singapore Air was launched as an independent carrier in 1972 after separating from Malaysian-Singapore Airlines. Despite the highly regulated atmosphere of the times, it refused to play by the rules, essentially ignoring the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the governing body that ran the airline business almost as a cartel. When SIA became the first IATA carrier to serve free drinks in economy, in 1972, the group's director dismissed the Asian upstart as a "parasite...
Nonetheless, some aviation observers are wondering whether SIA has lost some of its polish. SIA's attempts to stretch overseas through passenger-airline investments in India, the Philippines and New Zealand have turned sour. SIA took a $157 million loss on its investment in Air New Zealand. And a 49% stake in British-based Virgin Atlantic, bought in 1999 for $1.6 billion, has lost, by some estimates, almost two-thirds of its value, though many analysts think the deal will prove profitable in the long...
Still, many airlines have similar concerns, and few are as well equipped as SIA to respond, financially and otherwise. At a time when the industry is finding most of its economies in running fewer flights with greater numbers of passengers, Singapore Air operates one of the largest 747 passenger fleets in the world and is gearing up to introduce the double-decker 555-seat Airbus A380 in 2006. It's likely that airports around the world will follow the lead of Las Vegas, a midtier destination that is betting SIA will offer a lucrative link to the developing markets...
...been incredible,” Van Niel says. “I really couldn’t have asked for anything more. It’s a little bit of a leap of faith to try to do all these things and keep all these balls in the air and more or less, I think I’ve been able to do that.”Even though the praise has only come recently, singing is nothing new for Van Niel. He’s been involved in musicals of some sort since elementary school, and he began...