Silkair to boost Davao flights

DAVAO City, Philippines—Regional airline Silkair plans to increase the frequency of its flights between Davao and Singapore on expectations of a significant growth in traffic.

Chandran Menon, Silkair’s Philippine manager, said in a recent briefing here that the plan was to make Silkair flights to Singapore from here available on a daily basis.

Silkair, a subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, currently flies five times a week to the Lion City from here. Three of these are direct flights while two stop over in Cebu.

Steven Tan, head of Silkair’s Mindanao office, said the airline uses the 120-seater Airbus 319 for the Davao-Singapore route and the 150-seater Airbus 320 for the Davao-Cebu-Singapore route. Menon said Silkair currently enjoys an 80-percent load factor.

“That’s a good number. We have potential to grow,” Tan said.

Menon said the daily Davao-Singapore flight could be realized within next year or 2013.

“I want to see it happen in the next one or two years,” he said.

Menon said the recent entry of Tiger Airways into the Davao-Singapore route has not threatened Silkair’s load factor.

Tiger Airways, another regional budget airline, is also partly owned by Singapore Airlines.

Tiger Airways flies from here to Singapore three times a week.

“More flights to Singapore with different airlines would help promote Singapore and the points of origin like Davao to a number of travelers around the world,” Menon said.