Singapore unbeaten as Asia’s top convention city for 11th year running

Despite the rise of regional destinations offering the best state-of-the-sart facilities for business events Singapore maintains its position as Asia’s top convention city for 11th straight years, according to the latest Global Rankings by the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA).

Singapore hosted a record of 150 ICCA events in 2012, the highest so far, representing a 5.6% increase from 142 in 2011, compared to a 4.4% increase from 2010 to 2011.

The island republic also has the honour of being the only Asian city in the top 10 convention cities in the world alongside Vienna, Madrid, Paris, Berlin and Barcelona,

The accolade comes after a good year for Singapore tourism as the country welcomed a record high of 14.4 million visitors, an increase of 9% from 2011. Tourism receipts stood at S$23 billion, an increase of 3% from 2011.

For 2013 Singapore forecasts tourism receipts to grow to between S$23.5 to S$24.5 billion, and visitor arrivals to between 14.8million to 15.5 million.

There was also robust performance in the Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) industry, which saw BTMICE visitor arrivals rise to 2.5 million from January to September 2012, representing a 6% year-on-year growth. Expenditure by these business visitors rose 7% year-on-year to an estimated Sin$4.29 billion.

Last year also saw Singapore hosting18 world congresses including the Congress of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration, International Association of Gaming Regulators Conference, Young Presidents’ Organisation Global Leadership Summit, World Conference on Tobacco or Health, World Nut and Dried Fruit Congress as well as Global MBA Leadership Conference & Expo.

Neeta Lachmandas, assistant chief executive of the Singapore Tourism Board said, “The competition in the global meetings arena has never been keener, and Singapore is up against many worthy cities going for the MICE business. We believe that we are moving in the right direction by providing original content, incisive insight into leading-edge discussions and platforms for networking and exchange opportunities. We will also certainly continue to work with partners to strengthen our events calendar and deliver quality meetings to our delegates.”

Upcoming key conventions include the 79th World Library & Information Congress 2013, World Engineer’s Summit 2013, Interspeech 2014, 2013 IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence, 9th International Symposium on Bilingualism 2013, CICILS World Pulses Convention 2013, International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine Annual Meeting 2016, World Congress on Cosmetic Dermatology 2014, and International Federation of Landscape Architects World Congress 2018.

Robust Q1 for AirAsia, operating profit up 6% to RM255mil

AirAsia Bhd recorded a 6% increase in operating profit year-on-year (y-o-y) in the first quarter ended March 31, 2013 to RM254.93 million (US$84 million) on an increase in revenue while cost remained in check.

The low cost carrier said its quarterly revenue was RM1.3 billion, up 11% from revenue of RM1.17 billion in the same quarter last year.

It attributed the growth to the increase in the number of passengers carried, which grew 7% to 5.17 million, an increase in ancillary income per pax and average fare, and addition of capacity as the number of aircraft operating in Malaysia increased to 66.

Demand in terms of load factor remained strong at 79% despite the 9% increase in capacity this quarter,” it added.

AirAsa CEO, Aireen Omar (pictured left), said the company started off the year strongly, driven by an outstanding financial performance last year. Additionally its ancillary business is starting to gain traction with a 7% increase to RM42 per passenger from the same quarter last year.

“Measured by cost per available seat per kilometre (CASK), CASK ex-fuel was down by an impressive 5% at 6.83 sen as compared to 7.18 sen the same period last year. But due to the increase in the average fuel price, the overall CASK stood at 13.62 sen, which is flat y-o-y.”

The company’s revenue, measured in terms of revenue per available seat per kilometre (RASK), remained at the same level of 16.89 sen.  This was achieved from a 2% increase in average fare in Q1 to RM180 from RM177 the previous year, which offset the 1% decline in load factor.

“This demonstrates the success of our routes, service quality and strong brand creating a continuous demand of passenger growth every year. Ancillary income per pax in this quarter has grown to RM42 from RM40 y-o-y backed by strong numbers coming in from baggage and cargo.” added Aireen.

The company said Thai AirAsia posted record revenue of 6.03 billion baht in the first quarter, up 24% y-o-y. Operating profit increased 48% y-o-y to 931.85mil baht, while profit after tax increased 19% to 738.96mil baht.

Indonesia AirAsia’s revenue increased 34% to 1,222.48 billion rupiah from 911.35 billion rupiah. Operating profit jumped 172% to 41.97 billion rupiah from 15.45 billion rupiah a year ago.

Looking ahead Aireen said, “AirAsia constantly embrace challenges and will continue to prove ourselves as the cost leader in this industry. Our strong brand and extensive network are among our best assets.”

This year Malaysia AirAsia will take delivery of six aircraft to mainly cater to the increase in frequencies on its existing and high load routes.

“We were initially looking at adding 10 aircraft this year but as a group we decided to make room for the associates to grow, primarily Thai AirAsia and the upcoming AirAsia India. In addition, with the recent announcement of KLIA2 being delayed, we are certain current LCCT airport capacity will be a constraint.”

Skyscanner partners with China’s Qyer

Travel search site Skyscanner, known as Tianxun in China, has formed a partnership with Qyer, China’s largest community for outbound travellers and number one travel review site, to provide its flight search functionality on the Qyer.com site.

The agreement sees Skyscanner’s powerful and flexible flight search tool available to users of the Qyer site on a dedicated flight search page, as well as various destination and review pages. The partnership was built using Skyscanner’s API, which allows partners to display airline fares and availability on their website.

Skyscanner has experienced rapid growth in traffic of over 600% in China since opening its Beijing office last year, while Qyer’s two million monthly users now post six million forum posts on the site each month.

As with Skyscanner, users on Qyer can then click through to book their chosen flight direct with the airline or online travel agent at no extra cost.

April’s a good month for APAC airlines with growth in international pax traffic  

Asia Pacific airlines carried a combined total of 17.8 million international passengers in April, 3.4% more than the same month last year. These preliminary traffic figures released by the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (APPA) showed further growth in international air passenger traffic, whereas international air cargo markets remained subdued.

In revenue passenger kilometre (RPK) terms, international passenger traffic grew by 2.5% while available seat capacity expanded by 4.1%, leading to a 1.3 percentage point decline in the average international passenger load factor to 76.8% for the month.

For Asia Pacific carriers, international air cargo demand as measured in freight tonne kilometres (FTK) registered a slight 0.8% decline compared to the same month last year. Offered freight capacity expanded by 0.9%, resulting in a 1.1 percentage point fall in the average international cargo load factor to 65.2%.

Andrew Herdman, AAPA director general (pictured left), said, “Overall, the first four months of the year saw a 5.6% increase in the number of international passengers carried by the region’s airlines, whilst international air cargo traffic declined by 3.2%. Sustained growth in the region’s economies continues to drive air travel demand for Asian carriers. On the other hand, air cargo demand remains lacklustre.”

Looking ahead, he added the outlook for international air cargo demand remained clouded by uncertainty over the likely pace of any pickup in world trade flows.

“On a more positive note, growth in passenger demand will continue to be driven by relatively strong business and consumer confidence levels, particularly in Asia.”