Scoot moves closer to SIA in economy class

Booking an economy seat on a Singapore Airlines flight may be harder in future, as the premium carrier takes a back seat for Scoot, its budget arm, to climb higher. In just five years, Scoot, which operates medium-and long-haul flights, has not only overtaken the group's regional arm, SilkAir, but is also already about a third as big as SIA in the market for economy flights, in terms of the number of seats offered. According to industry consultancy OAG, Scoot will this year offer close to 7.5m seats - more than three times the seats it offered in 2014 - while SilkAir will grow by about 25% to just over six million seats. SIA, on the other hand, will see its inventory shrink by about 3% from 2014, to 21.3m seats this year. The capacity adjustments are part of SIA's overall strategy to deal with intensifying competition on all fronts. Scoot, with its much lower cost base, for example, is better suited than SIA to take on rivals in the economy and low-cost market. This does not mean, however, that the premium carrier is not competing in the economy segment, SIA's CEO Goh Choon Phong has said repeatedly.<br/>