Reports from Singapore indicate the national carrier Singapore Airlines (SIA) is lobbying the Singapore government to block Qantas Airways’ bid to establish a full-service short-haul carrier in Singapore.
A report in the Australian Financial Review sources the moves by SIA to unnamed executives familiar with Qantas’s latest push into Singapore. SIA declined to comment on the reports.
The AFR report says that Qantas’s proposal is now before Singapore’s Cabinet for discussion.
Qantas is proposing to establish a full-service, business-friendly, short-haul carrier in Singapore, tentatively named RedQ, and operating 11 Airbus A320s.
Qantas already has Jetstar Asia, a Singapore based low-cost carrier that is 51 percent owned by Singaporean businessman Dennis Choo.
Industry executives told Aviation Week there is a strong possibility that the Singapore government will reject Qantas’s proposal because the new full-service carrier Qantas is proposing to establish in Singapore will compete directly with SIA.
In the event of Qantas being shown the door in Singapore, the carrier may look to establish a base for RedQ in Kuala Lumpur.
