Singapore transport minister Khaw Boon Wan with youth aviation ambassadors from tertiary institutions

AS more people and airlines take to the skies, governments need to play a firm regulatory role to ensure that safety is not compromised, said Singapore’s transport minister Khaw Boon Wan during the opening address at the Singapore Airshow Aviation Leadership Summit yesterday.

According to Khaw, air travel in ASEAN member countries is expected to grow at 6.5 per cent over the next 20 years, surpassing the global average of 4.9 per cent, which could challenge existing infrastructure and air navigation service providers (ANSPs).

He said: “The liberalisation of the air services regime within ASEAN, which led to a proliferation of low cost carriers, has allowed many of our people to fly for the first time. The number of air passengers within ASEAN has tripled in the last decade, while the number of routes has grown by almost 40 per cent to more than 1,500 city pairs.”

Last week, the Philippines finally agreed to the ASEAN Open Sky Policy, paving the way for full third, fourth and fifth freedom rights for ASEAN carriers, which opens up Manila to all South-east Asian carriers.

He said: “Air traffic volumes are rising, especially on the back of the growing middle class in emerging economies. However, airport capacity cannot increase overnight, and the volume of airspace for aircraft to operate is finite.”

Explaining the current situation, Khaw said: “At present, many of our ANSPs manage traffic solely in the confines of the airspace assigned to them. This is manageable with current traffic volumes, but as traffic increases, ANSPs should have sight of upstream traffic and coordinate with upstream ANSPs in order to optimise the overall flow of traffic.

“We need our airspaces to be better integrated so that air traffic can overall be more efficiently managed, and more importantly, safety can be enhanced even as our skies become more crowded,” he added.

Khaw emphasised that governments have a key role to play in this area and cited the example of the collaborative air traffic management system that will be implemented soon between major cities like Singapore, Bangkok and Hong Kong.

“We have taken some steps in this direction but clearly we can do more together. We must have resolve to make the hard decisions in the interest of aviation safety first and foremost,” stated Khaw.

DATA from IATA has revealed that there were more commercial jet accidents in 2015 compared to the year before, but resulted in far fewer passenger fatalities.

The global jet accident rate (measured in hull losses per 1 million flights) stood at 0.32, which equates to one major accident for every 3.1 million flights, a rise from 2014’s rate of 0.27, or approximately one major accident for every 4 million flights.

However, while 2014 saw a staggering 641 passenger fatalities, the number dropped to 136 last year, if only taking accidents into account. If including the tragic loss of Germanwings 9525 and Metrojet 9268, which were caused by deliberate pilot suicide and a suspected act of terror respectively, the number of passenger deaths last year stands at 510.

In total, there were four fatal aircraft accidents in 2015 versus 12 in 2014.

Sorted by operator regions, only north America saw a decline in safety performance last year when compared to the respective five-year rates between 2010 and 2014, with 0.32 accidents versus 0.13.

North Asia experienced zero accidents in 2015, while Asia-Pacific saw 0.21 incidents last year compared to its five-year rate of 0.56.

NINE Nok Air flights were cancelled on Sunday after pilots went on strike over the airline’s raising of auditing standards.

The pilots reportedly went on strike to express discontent over being unable to meet the new audit criteria adopted by the airline to meet the IATA Operation Safety Audit.

The airline said it would compensate passengers in line with the Department of Civil Aviation regulations.

OMAN will be showcasing its US$35 billion tourism masterplan at this year’s Arabian Travel Market (ATM) as the sultanate expects more growth in the years ahead.

According to Oman Airports Management Company, Oman’s airports in Muscat and Salalah recorded an 18 per cent rise in passenger numbers in 2015, surpassing the 10 million passenger mark for the first time in its operational history, while Salalah Airport also saw a rise in traffic by 22 per cent to reach more than one million passengers.

Oman saw inbound tourism numbers rise by an average of 7.4 per cent per annum in the decade 2005-14, and targets 1.4 million international tourism arrivals by 2019, up from 1.1 million in 2015.

Oman Ministry of Tourism forecasted hotel room capacity to expand at an annual growth rate of 5.3 per cent over the next three to four years and make up 10 per cent of the GDP by 2020.

Nadege Noblet-Segers, exhibition manager, ATM

“Oman’s tourism strategy for 2015 through to 2040 has an investment value of US$35 billion and the country is working hard to increase its global appeal with exciting initiatives such as the launch of an e-visa system by Royal Oman Police in February last year,” said Nadege Noblet-Segers, ATM’s exhibition manager.

Oman Air is also working to draw tourists to Oman by improving the city’s accessibility, for example, by launching a new route to Dhaka and enhancing the passenger capacity of flights to Frankfurt, Colombo, Tehran and Dammam.

ATM will be held in Dubai from February 25 to 28.

ORGANISERS of Travel Revolution expect to sustain visitor numbers this year despite “gruelling” economic conditions.

The fair was inaugurated by the Singapore Outbound Travel Agents Association (SOTAA) in April last year after discontentment with the NATAS Travel Fair.

Said Kay Swee Pin, president of SOTAA: “(Offering the best value for money) is our top priority as 2016 is expectedly a gruelling year for businesses and consumers due to the global economic malaise.”

“That said, we are hopeful of pulling in about 76,000 visitors, which is the same count as the inaugural Travel Revolution,” she added.

Taking place from February 26 to 28 at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands, the travel fair will feature a new addition of food kiosks offering popular treats from six countries.

Daily draws will be conducted every two hours starting from 13.00 to the last draw at 21.00 while the grand draw will take place on the last day at 21.30, with prizes including flights to Canberra, Bhutan, Europe and the prize-winner’s choice of destination on Singapore Airlines, DrukAir, Oman Air and Etihad Airways respectively. Cruise and tour packages as well as a stay at Maldives Makundu Island will also be given away.

Visitors can also expect attractive deals offered by travel agencies, including free flights, stays and land tours; one-for-one deals; 50 per cent discount for second traveller; and value-added or upgrade bonuses.

This year, NTOs from Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Macau, New Zealand, Sabah and Thailand will be present. Visitors can enjoy activities that showcase the respective countries, such as complimentary Thai massage and Indonesian refreshments.

Paul James, senior vice president, global marketing and branding, Millennium Hotels & Resorts

MILLENNIUM Hotels & Resorts (MHR), which will be unveiling its first M Social hotel in Singapore end April or early May, said there won’t be any confusion between the brand and its Studio M Singapore hotel.

Taxi drivers may disagree.

Both are located in the Robertson Quay area, are designer hotels – M Social is by Philippe Starck, while Studio M is by Pierro Lissoni – and both seek to cater to the contemporary traveller.

But MHR senior vice president global marketing and branding, Paul James, said it’s “an evolution of communication”. Said James: “M Social is not ‘studio’, which is much more in the select service market.”

Opened in 2010, Studio M is Singapore’s first all-lofts hotel with 360 rooms of around 22m² in size. It describes itself in its website as a “distinctive four-star hotel” where “style and functionality are key”. Its ARR is reportedly around S$160 (US$114).

Six years and one Studio M later, the company’s chairman, Kwek Leng Beng, is now attempting to reinvent the four-star space again with M Social, a development with 100 loft-style rooms and 200 standard rooms, average room size of 20m², 90 of them residences.

Although there isn’t a shortage of players now in Asia jostling for this space – CitizenM, Radisson Red, Canopy by Hilton, etc – James believes who’ll win in the end is who is most able to fuse the right blend of technology with service, design with comfort and convenience, and who is most able to provide genuine social spaces that enable a generation that likes to be alone together feel truly belonged.

“There are already brands like that but we are doing it from the perspective of being 30 years in the business, and the one thing we do well is blend technology and soft-touch,” he said.

James added that a “hero designer” like Philippe Starck would help with his insights to regenerate the space and the first M Social in Singapore was a testbed to expand the brand elsewhere and in Singapore either through new-builds or conversions.

Rates at M Social are expected to be well above S$200 for a start, said James. His base market, one-fifth, would be staycations due to its riverfront location. The rest would comprise a high percentage of leisure business and some corporate travel.

The closeness of the names may accelerate the company’s move to rebrand Studio M. JLL Hotels has reportedly been engaged to review international hotel chains to manage Studio M as well as the group’s luxury property which opened last year, South Beach. This also comes as Singapore’s hotel market braces for a tougher year, with arrivals softening and room stock growing by 6.4 per cent this year on top of last year’s 7.2 per cent.

AUTHORITIES in Thailand are examining the back-up systems for power supply at all airports in Thailand after a blackout at Krabi airport.

The six-hour outage on Wednesday saw customs officers working by candlelight and logging some 3,000 tourist arrivals by hand as computers were not working after the back-up power system failed.

“We just look for the whole back-up system,” Chula Sukmanop, director-general of the Department of Airports, told TTG Asia, adding that this would be for all the airports in Thailand, not just Krabi.

This might see the organisation’s manual extended to cover contingencies such as the back-up system failing, he added.

“We have a Plan B but in this case we maybe have to have a Plan C,” Sukmanop told TTG Asia.

The outage was unlikely to affect Thailand’s plans to end its ICAO red flag status, he added. Thailand was red-flagged by the UN agency and Bangkok plan to invite ICAO inspectors next year to have the flag withdrawn.

Said Dr Sukmanop: “This was not a safety measure; it is about an airport.”

The outage was unlikely to have seen a breach in Thailand’s security and let blacklisted individuals sneak back in.

Of the planes arriving at Krabi while the computer system was down, “the majority are charter flights and organised by travel agents so the risk is less than usual…that’s why they were let in,” he added.

Local news reports also added that immigration bureau officers had checked written records with the rebooted computer and found no blacklisted individuals.

Thailand recently moved to blacklist long overstayers. Those who turn themselves in to the authorities after more than 90 days without a visa cannot return to Thailand for a year but those who are arrested for overstaying less than a year face a five-year ban.