Leveraging on an iconic event

SINGAPORE Airlines is not just an icon in the world of commercial aviation. It is also a company which is well known for its extremely thorough due-diligence process.

For example, its approach to selecting the planes for its fleet is more than just the stuff of urban legend in the industry. A CEO of a leading international airline once let on that his team, like many others in the industry, often waits to see what SIA does before making their decision on a plane-type. "Nobody will spend time and money to reinvent the wheel after SIA has engineered it so precisely."

A case in point was the A380, whose popularity took off largely after SIA committed to the giant plane and became the first to fly it some seven years ago. And many in the industry still recall how former SIA CEO Chew Choon Seng's remarks about the original Airbus A350 being too narrow prompted the European planemaker to redesign the plane, which is now known as the A350XWB (extra wide body). SIA promptly placed orders for 20 of these planes, and was quickly followed by others.