One of the items put for the live auction was a pair of boxing gloves signed by Manny (Pacman) Pacquiao who, to people who know boxing, is to the Philippines what Brad Pitt is to the Americans – although signed photos of Pitt and Angelina Jolie did not fetch any bids at all, so I shouldn’t really compare the two.
The gloves went for S$7,107, rather appropriately after the number of islands in the Philippines.
As I looked at the gloves, I couldn’t help but picture them on either Tony Fernandes’ fists or that of the new Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong and wonder who will win the Low Cost Match of the Century.
Last night, Singapore Airlines threw its hat in the with news it will launch a low-cost carrier within the year. To be managed separately and independently, the new carrier will operate twin-aisle wide-body aircraft on medium and longhaul routes. That’s all it is sharing for now.
This happened the same week that AirAsia decides to set up a base in Singapore, where it will base crew and operations to operate more flights out of this tiny little red dot that’s bursting at the seams, by the way, with low cost carriers.
We’ve also got Jetstar operating out of here and not to mention Tiger Airways, which SIA also owns a third of.
It shows that SIA is at last taking seriously the burgeoning budget market. With the new low cost entity, as well as SilkAir, its regional airline, it will now have three stakes in the ground. It will allow SIA to maintain its premium high-end focus as well as compete for the low end of the market. How the SilkAir model will play out in this scenario, we can only guess. The middle’s never a good place to be.
Qantas is also keeping mum about plans for a new carrier to be based in Singapore. Really?
SIA, which has also been criticized for being slow in the digital space, also launched its new website last week which the local newspaper said had a “bumpy start”. Bug issues meant it had to be taken down for an hour on Sunday and the airline says it is fixing the “teething problems”.
According to the airline, “The new singaporeair.com introduces streamlined commercial and redemption bookings including a single payment for all the contents of a shopping cart, a graphical interface to construct complex itineraries and a KrisFlyer Dashboard to present at a glance the complete information of the member’s personal account information.”
Developed by Sapient Interactive of the US, the new website marks a step in the airline recognizing the role digital has to play if it wants to start engaging with new customers who may not necessarily care much for the Singapore Girl, let alone stay married to her for life.
It appears however to be shy of being too social – unlike most websites today, you don’t find the ubiquitous Facebook and Twitter icons on the homepage.
Perhaps the low cost Singapore Girl will be allowed to have a little more fun with her friends?
