Air fares between India and Singapore on flights operated by Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Silk Air have gone up by between 1 to 2 per cent from this month.

“We are constantly adjusting our fares. We do a review twice a year and revise fares based on the market supply and demand situation,” said David Lim, General Manager, India, Singapore Airlines, without getting into specifics of what changes had been made in the fare. The review does not necessarily have to see fares move northwards, he added.

It was not immediately clear whether the increase in fares on SIA and Silk Air’s flights is due to the increase in global prices of aviation fuel or of other reasons as the airline provides an all-inclusive airfare to passengers without giving a break up of what the fuel cost and other components of the ticket are. SIA hedges on almost 46 per cent of the aviation fuel that it purchases which basically is forward selling and buying of aviation fuel to improve their bottom line.

Rupee depreciation?

Singapore Airlines and Silk Air do not seem to have been adversely affected by the depreciation in the value of the Indian Rupee. “India is a very resilient market. We are adding over 400 seats a week to Delhi later this month. Besides we are also to start another service to Ahmedabad taking the weekly flights to Singapore to four. In addition, for 11 days this month only Singapore Airlines will be operating to Kolkata which will allow us to offer more seats to Singapore,” Lim said.

Meanwhile, India is being counted among the top 5 markets for the non-stop service that SIA operates from Singapore to San Francisco, which is one of the longest flights that the airline operates currently.