Singapore budget carrier Scoot aims to operate at least three to four long-haul routes within the next two to three years, according to Scoot CEO Lee Lik Hsin.
Travellers can expect Scoot to announce one new long-haul route by this year, followed by another in 2018, Lee to Channel NewsAsia on May 11, 2017. He declined to name specific destinations but hinted that the airline will not be limiting itself to Asia. The airline said it is exploring Honolulu, Hawaii, as a possible destination, after reports stating it could fly there by end-2017 emerged.
Scoot is set to pick up a new Boeing 787 Dreamliner on Friday May 12.This will be the 14th in Scoot’s all-Dreamliner fleet, but the new plane comes with an added feature – crew rest bunks. “The first few aeroplanes that we took did not have the crew rest bunks and so could not be deployed on the long-haul routes per se," said Lee. "With this, we clearly signalled our intention that we want to be in that space, to fly long-haul routes in our network.”
Last August, Scoot announced its first long-haul flight to Europe last August. The Singapore-Athens route is set to begin next month. Lee said the current take-up is “quite healthy” – about 70 per cent of the seats were sold so far within the first few months of operation.
