The direct flight to Singapore from Pune took off on Saturday. This flight will open various new avenues in terms of tourism and business. The absence of a direct air link between Pune and Singapore for almost a decade has definitely deprived Pune and western Maharashtra from the immense growth opportunities that would have opened up otherwise for trade, commerce, manufacturing, agriculture and other industries in and around Pune.
Apart from Singapore being one of the most preferred tourist destinations, it is also a preferred business destination due to the operational convenience, transparency, legal and financial stability, business integrity and a neutral cosmopolitan climate that it offers.
IT companies from Pune like TCS, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Wipro and Cognizant have a huge presence in Singapore for providing technology services, consulting, IT solutions to their clients there in varied fields like auto, banking, healthcare, aerospace, defence etc.
TATAs, with 15 of their group companies with more than 3,000 employees, have a notable presence in Singapore.
The port country is also preferred for incorporating start-up and new businesses because of its pro-business environment.
A direct link from Pune will bring the Singapore market within the reach of Pune, especially the MSME.
Singapore is also a convenient global gateway for thousands of tourists, corporate, traders, industrialists, IT professionals, businessmen and students from Pune and western Maharashtra to connect onwards to destinations in ASEAN countries, America and Australia.
The Pune-Singapore route is a high yield route with a significant number of passengers travelling in the business class. This flight will be a high demand flight for both passengers and cargo.
Pune-Singapore scheduled flight service was first started by Air India on December 13, 2005 with an Airbus A320 aircraft. After the termination of that Pune-Singapore flight shortly afterwards, many airlines took efforts to operate on this route which had great potential. However, no Indian carrier started a flight on this route.
Being a global emerging business destination, a manufacturing and IT hub, Pune has always been on the economic radar of Singapore. Airlines like Singapore Airlines and its subsidiaries like Silk Air were understood to have lobbied with the government for many years for operating on this important sector but somehow did not succeed.
The direct flight to Singapore augurs well for Pune.
