Long-range jets to link strategic aviation hubs

Press, 14 October 1986, Page 35

Long-range jets to link strategic aviation hubs

The advent of modern aircraft with long-range capability for nonstop flights will speed up the establishment of aviation hubs as strategic points for long-range travel by the end of this century.

Within these hubs, all flights will be nonstop flights, and traffic from around them will be fed to the hubs by shorter-range aircraft.

This vision of a world dominated by a few major hubs, connected to each other by modern long-rdnge aircraft, is offered by Mr Lim Chin Beng, Singapore Airlines’ deputy chairman.

Mr Lim said these hubs would include Singapore, London, New York, Tokyo, and Los Angeles. Using the long-range aircraft between the hubbing points would be the most economic utilisation of this sophisticated expensive new equipment; smaller aircraft would be required to operate regional services feeding into the hubs. s Mr Lim said that Governments and bureaucrats would have a major role in deciding whether a particular city develops into a major hub or declines into just one of the satellites around the hub. Singapore offered obvious advantages, for example, to a carrier like Qantas. With the advent of the new 8747-400 aircraft, which can operate nonstop between Singapore and London, Mr Lim’s view is that Qantas would be looking to use this .aircraft to operate its services from the East Coast of Australia to London via Singapore, instead of another point in this region (Bombay). Singapore, he said, has the volume of traffic to make it an important and attractive hubbing and complexing

point. The time of day at Singapore for aircraft transitting between Australia and Europe and vice versa (between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.) is very civilised. Singapore’s catering, handling and transit facilities are “second to none in the region, if not the world.” At Changi, the first passenger terminal designed to handle 10 million passengers a year, was already nearing capacity. With the completion of the second terminal in 1989, this capacity would double. Mr Lim said: “Obviously a liberal aviation policy, together with the appropriate infrastructure, will encourage the development of a city into an important aviation hub. Singapore’s importance as an aviation hub will be further enhanced with the introduction by Singapore Airlines of the new breed of long-range Boeing 747-400 aircraft, the expansion of Singapore Changi Airport and, most importantly, Singapore Airline’s and the Singapore Government’s liberal aviatioin policy.” The Singapore planners’ confidence in growth has not been misplaced: in terms of the number of international passengers embarked and disembarked in 1984, Singapore ranked sixth in the world after London, New York,. Amsterdam, Hong Kong and Tokyo. If transit passengers were also included, Singapore’s ranking would be even higher, moving up to number s’in the world. Of all airports in the world, Singapore handled the second largest proportion, after Tokyo, of transit passengers in 1984. In terms of international freight loaded and unloaded in 1984, Singapore ranks sixth with about 300,000 tonnes, after airports like New York, Tokyo, London (Heathrow), Amsterdam and Hong Kong.