Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Scoot Airlines saves on fuel with in flight iPad


Scoot Airlines, the long-haul budget arm of Singapore Airlines, has started its flights today with a new innovation which cleverly cuts fuel costs while offering a great budget flight experience. Instead of carrying around tonnes of seat back entertainment system and wiring, Scoot offers iPad tablets loaded with movies, music, games and television shows, free to business-class seats and 22 Singapore Dollars (17 USD) to economy class seats.

The innovation helped Scoot to cut 7 percent off the weight of Boeing 777 planes taken from parent Singapore Airlines. This is even after a 40 percent increase in seating (the budget long haul flight on Boeing 777 carries up to 400 passangers). These savings will help Scoot cope with fuel prices that have jumped about 36 percent in two years.[1]:

The iPads are "a very smart move," said Corrine Png, JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s Singapore-based head of regional transportation research. "If they can make the aircraft lighter, it does help improve fuel efficiency." 
The budget carrier will loan the iPads free to passengers in its business-class seats. It eventually intends to have users access content via a wireless system onboard planes. 
JetStar, Qantas Airways Ltd.'s budget arm, also offers preloaded iPads on domestic and international flights lasting longer than 90 minutes. Qantas's main unit began trialing a wireless iPad system in December.[1]

Scoot has already sold more than 100,000 tickets for its flights which have started today. Singaporean budget carrier Scoot's maiden flight was a little bumpy start and was delayed of almost two hours on Monday night due to a technical fault.[2]:

Source : relax.com.sg


The Boeing 777-200 jet was originally scheduled for departure at 11.25pm, eventually took off at about 1.05am, according to reports. 
The flight with a full load of about 400 paying passengers, guests and members of the media left Terminal 2 at Singapore Changi Airport 20 minutes later then scheduled. However, it turned back on the runway and returned to the boarding area at 12.20am. [2]

The airline has a web site named Flyscoot from where you can buy tickets and check promotions and latest news.

[1] - iPads on a Plane Let Scoot Save Fuel by Shedding Tons of TVs
[2] - Scoot makes maiden flight to Sydney



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