Singapore opens up 30 destinations through Scoot codeshare

Singapore Airlines has made it easier for its full-service passengers to travel on its low- cost operations through a new codesharing agreement with Scoot. The move is another nail in the coffin of Singapore's  (SIA) previous strategy of keeping its long-haul, low-cost operator at arm’s length and means its customers can now travel to more than 130 destinations on a single ticket. It will see SIA will progressively add its ‘SQ’ designator code to Scoot flights and full service subsidiary SilkAir add its ‘MI’ code. This means SIA and SilkAir customers will get easy access to 30 destinations Scoot serves but its sister  carriers do not. The codeshare arrangements will begin with Scoot flights serving Athens, Clark, Gold Coast, Hat Yai, Ipoh, Krabi, Kuching and Palembang. The new agreement will see SIA and SilkAir customers issued boarding passes and baggage tags to their final destination at the first point of check-in. They will also be offered Scoot’s  FlyBagEat  option, which  includes a checked  baggage  allowance, complimentary meals and beverages as well as a blanket for flights above four hours. Read our review of Scoot. SilkAir and SIA customers get 30kgs of checked baggage, as opposed to 20kgs for FlyBagEat, and officials confirmed this will apply to Scoot flights. However, customers of the full service carriers  will have to pay a fee to select seats on Scoot flights, although they will be able to do so through SIA and SilkAir websites when booking their tickets. SIA has been restructuring its low-cost operations and earlier this year flew its last official flight under the Tigerair code. That  process had been underway since May, 2016, when Singapore Airlines brought the carriers together under a common holding company, Budget Aviation Holdings,  and work started on integrating operations, flight scheduling and reservations systems. The merger aimed to improve the efficiency of the airlines in the competitive South-East Asian market by utilising aircraft more effectively and streamlining operations. The new codeshare flights, still subject to regulatory approval, will be made available progressively through regular booking channels. Cities affected by the change are: Amritsar, Athens, Clark, Dalian, Gold Coast, Haikou, Hangzhou, Harbin, Hat Yai, Honolulu, Ipoh, Jaipur, Jeddah, Jinan, Kaohsiung, Krabi, Kuantan, Kuching, Lucknow, Macau, Nanjing, Ningbo, Palembang, Qingdao, Quanzhou, Sapporo, Shenyang, Tianjin, Tiruchirappalli, Wuxi, Xi’an and Zhengzhou.