According to a report published by the Spanish News Agency "ABC", the Spanish Civil Aviation Authority (Direccion General de Aviacion Civil) has authorized Spanair and Singapore Airlines to code-share on the route SIN-BCN-GRU vv. thrice weekly. While this is not an official announcement per say, it's a clear message that the flight will indeed exist.
The routing has been a subject of debate however there are a couple of reasons why Singapore Airlines, who has been trying to launch a flight to Brazil for a while now (initially via Frankfurt and Milan), chose to fly via Barcelona:
- Singapore Airlines has been granted 5th. freedom rights and will thereby be able to sell the tag BCN-GRU vv. in addition to SIN-GRU vv.;
- Catalonia itself offers a nice mix of (increasing) Business and Leisure traffic which Singapore Airlines can build on to push local traffic to and from Brazil - with the advantage that they will be the sole player offering non-stop services between Barcelona (and the Catalonia catchment area) and Brazil;
- Singapore Airlines will be the only "5 Star Airline" (according to Skytrax) to offer direct services between Brazil and Europe which means it will be in an excellent position to capture some existing premium traffic from the competition;
- Through its Star Alliance partnership with Spanair, Singapore Airlines will have a European hub at its disposal.
There is no specific date given when the flight is supposed to be launched but it is widely accepted that it should happen within a six month timeframe (please correct me if you hear otherwise - right now there are only rumors here and there), which would put the start of the flight somewhere around the start of the 2011 IATA Summer Timetable (April 2011).
On a personal note: I'd love to see Singapore Airlines around here! And I'm sure they would give the competition a good run for their money :)
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