QANTAS yesterday unveiled its A$9 million (US$9.4 million) new Singapore Lounge at Singapore Changi Airport’s Terminal One.
Simon Hickey, CEO, Qantas International, said: “This multi-million dollar investment is part of our broader commitment to improve the experience we offer on services to and from Asia, including our Airbus A330 upgrades to begin next year.”
“It also complements our new Asia schedule, which promotes Singapore as a hub for the region. We now offer more dedicated capacity, better frequencies and improved connections from Singapore to other destinations across Asia.”
The Singapore Lounge seats 460 guests, has 20 showers, 80-inch television screens throughout and technology pods located across the various zones. The lounge is open to Qantas business class customers, as well as Platinum One, Platinum and Gold Frequent Flyer members, Qantas Club members and eligible Oneworld customers.
Following the formation of an alliance with Emirates, Qantas restructured its Asian network, recently implemented on March 31, to bring better access to Hong Kong and Singapore, with a dedicated capacity increase of around 10 per cent and 40 per cent respectively (TTG Asia e-Daily, February 5, 2013).
During the opening of the lounge, Hickey also said the first of 14 Dreamliners ordered for its Jetstar subsidiary is now expected to be delivered “sometime after August” due to battery problems.
The Dreamliners were grounded globally on January 16 due to a series of overheating problems with the aircraft’s battery system (TTG Asia e-Daily, January 17, 2013).
But Hickey said the problems with the Dreamliner batteries were part of “teething issues with any new aircraft that has ever been available to put in the air”.
