News that the UK and Singapore have today (21 November) agreed to sweep away all air services restrictions, has been greeted with understandable enthusiasm by the Republic”s main carrier.
Signing the deal today, UK Secretary of State for Transport, Ruth Kelly and Singapore Minister for Transport, Raymond Lim, paved the way for open aviation access, including flights to any onward destination.
The agreement is the first time that non-European Union or US airlines will have free access to the London-US market and also finalises a treaty on codesharing and ground handling.
”This is a real step forward for the airline industry,” said a Singapore Airlines spokesman. ”The UK ” previously one of the more restrictive regulators of air services ” has seen the very real benefits of opening markets to full competition.
”This is one of the most progressive agreements struck across the world in years. It will be closely watched by many other couriers and should serve as a template for badly-needed structural reform of the archaic air services agreement system.”
Singapore Airlines” willingness to embrace the new deal, which comes into effect on 30 March next year, is evident given the fact that this is also the effective date of the EU-US Stage 1 Open Skies deal.
Singapore can now extend its operations from the UK and beyond, although, given the carrier is primarily a Heathrow-based airline, its options are constrained by the slots available.
However, as launch customer for the Airbus A380, it may well be able to lever economies of scale with the ultra-large aircraft to free up some space.”