John Linton
We flew from Sydney to Singapore today on a three quarters empty aircraft seemingly proving the theory that "the global financial crisis" was really biting in this obvious example of an almost 'empty' flight from and to two of the most popular cities on one of the more popular SE Asian routes. Or so it seemed until we went for a stroll down Orchard Road after sitting down for the previous 8 hours and jostled our way through the late afternoon Sunday pedestrians on both sides of Orchard Road who were packing the various 'brand name' stores and, as far as we could see based on the number of bulging brand name shopping bags being carried out of the various stores, spending money in extravagant abundance on over priced and totally unnecessary goods.
One swallow never did make a summer and one Singaporean or visitor to Singapore at the start of the monsoon season never did make a rainy season but it seems in this part of the "Troubled South East Asian Region" Cartier, Tiffany, Ferragamo and Louis Vuitton etc prices aren't a barrier to big spending by either the locals or the visitors. I contented myself by attempting to avoid the intermittent heavy rain and lightening strikes to stretch my legs and dither about buying a Nikon Digital SLR for a couple of hundred dollars less than I could buy it for in Sydney.
Singapore, as always over the past thirty years, presents a vibrant contrast to Australia in almost every aspect of modern life. A skyline full of cranes (now dwarfed in concept by Dubai and other Arab States but nevertheless excessively impressive compared to Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane) and an array of beautiful 'CBD' builings that make Australia's major cities look third rate. A bustling urban population that is so significantly better dressed and dressed more fashionably that even a dinosaur like me can't help but notice the difference between the pedestrians on Orchard Road in their chic elegance and the dowdy denizens (both male and female) of Sydney's major CBD streets.
I spent the pleasant 7 hour plus flight (Singapore Airlines is to Qantas what Tetsuyas is to the Cremorne MacDonalds) considering what Exetel might do over the coming twelve months in terms of service offerings and pricing interrupted only by the need to deal with breakfast and lunch offers from the ineffable Singapore Girls who define customer service in the commercial aviation industry - and I would venture - in any other service industry.
How could the Singapore Airline 'experience' be delivered in the Australian communications industry? Whoever aimed at that 'target' and then successfully achieved it for the last thirty years (in my experience and in so many analytical surveys) has managed to encapsulate what appears to be the realization of every passenger's expectation - perfect service delivered effortlessly by every employee - a truly amazing accomplishment.
I would like to be associated with an Australian company that could do half what Singapore Airlines do - I have flown a lot of times on commercial airlines in my life and, in my experience, Singapore Airlines do the same things every other airline does - but what they do ALWAYS makes me feel better than the same things done by other airlines.
How is that possible in an industry where:
Every airline uses the same aircraft
Every airline uses the same crew:passenger ratios
Every airline pays the same fuel and maintenance prices (possibly not the Oil rich State airlines for fuel)
Almost every other cost and delivery aspect is the same
It was a salutary, and humbling, experience once again to fly Singapore Airlines and find the experience to, once again, be better than flying the same route, on the same aircraft, in the same seat as every other airline.
What is their 'secret'?
Once we get the current support and service improvement program completed (scheduled for the end of 2008) we should look at a new program in an attempt to emulate the stunning, and sustained over decades, service standards achieved by SIA.