Daily news - 30 Oct

SIA cuts capacity to Asian cities from falling demand
Singapore Airlines (SIA) – Faced with falling passenger numbers, SIA has embarked on an aggressive capacity reduction programme which will see cuts in some routes and total pullouts from others. The airline said that the changes, which are being implemented progressively throughout the five-month-long Northern Winter schedule beginning Oct 26, will 'better match capacity with demand'. Services to Penang and Ho Chi Minh will be gradually reduced to 18 and 17 weekly flights respectively, while one service to Seoul will be initially reduced, then scrapped completely from Feb 2 to March 28 next year, when the winter season ends. But SIA will continue to operate 17 weekly services to and from the Korean capital during winter. Osaka will be served once a day from Nov 2 by SQ618 (Singapore-Osaka) and SQ617 (Osaka-Singapore). Flights SQ622 (Singapore-Osaka) and SQ621 (Osaka-Singapore) will be suspended. Frequencies to Bangalore and Chennai will also be reduced. Meanwhile, the relatively recent service to Amritsar will be dumped from February next year, with passengers booked on flights to the northern Indian city being transferred to SIA's New Delhi service. Also, from February, SIA will link its Cape Town flights to Johannesburg. The Cape Town extension will operate three flights weekly, while the daily service to Johannesburg will be maintained. But while cutting intra-Asian flights, SIA has increased services to the Middle East. The frequency of flights to Istanbul, via Dubai, has been raised to six flights per week from four. SIA will also be introducing flights to Riyadh. All this comes just two weeks after SIA reported that it had been hit by its first fall in passenger numbers in three years. The airline's passenger numbers in raw terms dipped 1.6 per cent to 1.51 million last month from a year ago.

CDL Hospitality Trusts Q3 income up 30% to $24.4m
CDL Hospitality Trusts (CDLHT) yesterday said that its third quarter distributable income rose 29.7 per cent to $24.4 million, from $18.8 million a year ago. Distribution per unit for the three months ended Sept 30 was 2.93 cents, 24.2 per cent higher than the 2.36 cents reported for the corresponding period last year. Net property income for Q3 rose 20.7 per cent to $27.3 million, from $22.6 million in Q3 2007. CDLHT is a stapled group comprising a real estate investment trust (Reit) and a business trust. In Q3 2008, the room revenue per available room (RevPAR) for the Reit's Singapore hotels - Orchard Hotel, Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, M Hotel, Copthorne King's Hotel and Novotel Clarke Quay - rose to $214, from $176 a year ago. The Reit also owns one hotel in New Zealand - Rendezvous Hotel Auckland. However, the average occupancy rate fell slightly by about four percentage points to 85.5 per cent as visitor arrivals to Singapore fell. But the Reit was still able to report better earnings as room rates were higher this year. In particular, the Reit benefited from the strong performance of its hotels during the Formula One Grand Prix, when room rates were about twice the average rates. 'We are pleased to have been able to report robust growth in this quarter on the base of organic growth across CDLHT's portfolio of hotels despite turmoil in the global financial markets,' said Vincent Yeo, chief executive of the Reit's manager.

Source: Kim Eng