Singapore Airlines Ltd (SIA) plans to turn one of its grounded jumbo jets into a pop-up restaurant and offer home-delivered airplane food as part of a series of initiatives to try and re-engage people who have been unable to travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
With no domestic network, the city-state’s national carrier has been financially battered by curbs on international travel and has laid off about one-fifth of its staff.
The airline yesterday also said that it would offer tours of its training center and flight simulator experiences, but scrapped an initial idea to follow a growing trend in Asia for scenic flights following a backlash on environmental grounds.
“With COVID-19 drastically reducing the number of flights operated by the SIA Group, we have created unique activities that would allow us to engage with our fans and customers during this time,” Singapore Airlines chief executive officer Goh Choon Phong (吳俊鵬) said.
Those who wish to dine aboard the double-decker A380, the world’s largest passenger aircraft, can choose between different cabin classes and menus designed by international chefs.
Customers are to be given goodie bags and those who dine in traditional clothing would receive additional gifts.
If customers opt to have the airplane food delivered to their home, they would receive welcome videos, guides on how to heat and plate the dishes, and a “specially curated playlist to recreate the SIA onboard experience,” the airline said.
Earlier this month, Thai Airways International PCL transformed the cafeteria of its Bangkok headquarters into an airline-themed restaurant, decked out with airplane seats and cabin crew members in full uniform.
With the aviation industry in deep crisis, several carriers — including in Taiwan, Australia and Japan — have been offering short flights that start and end at the same airport to raise cash.
They are designed for travel-starved people eager to fly at a time of virus-related restrictions, and have proved surprisingly popular.
Environmental advocates voiced opposition to Singapore Airlines launching “flights to nowhere,” with group SG Climate Rally saying that they would encourage “carbon-intensive travel for no good reason.”
Additional reporting by AFP
UNPRECEDENTED PACE: Micron Technology has announced plans to expand manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of a new chip plant in Miaoli Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom. The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement. It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said. As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion
A man walks past real-estate advertisements outside a house in Taipei yesterday. The central bank yesterday said it plans to establish an “Inflation-at-Risk” gauge as a supplementary tool for observing inflation, as policymakers express wish to communicate more effectively with the public when making inflation forecasts.
ABOVE LEGAL REQUIREMENT: The Ministry of Economic Affairs is prepared if LNG supply is disrupted, with more than the legal requirement of 11 days of inventory Taiwan has largely secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies through May and arranged about half of June’s supply, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. Since the Middle East conflict began on Feb. 28, Taiwan’s LNG inventories have remained more than 12 days, exceeding the legal requirement of 11 days, indicating no major supply concerns for domestic gas and electricity, Kung said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. The ministry aims to increase the figure to 14 days by the end of next year, he said. While one or two LNG or crude oil shipments for May
Memory chip stocks extended their losses yesterday after Alphabet Inc’s Google publicized research that could allow more efficient use of the storage needed for artificial intelligence (AI) development. SK Hynix Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, South Korean leaders in the market, fell more than 6 percent and about 5 percent respectively in Seoul. In the US, Micron Technology Inc, Western Digital Corp and Sandisk Corp slid more than 2 percent in pre-market trading, after they all closed lower on Wednesday. Memory companies have been on a tear in recent months as the rapid development of AI infrastructure triggered a spike in chip
RSS