New nonstop Hong Kong flight greeted with fanfare

Monday, Aug. 5, 2002 | 10:50 a.m.

A top executive with Singapore Airlines said the company hopes to turn its nonstop flight between Las Vegas and Hong Kong into a daily operation.

Michael J.N. Tan, senior executive vice president, commercial, of SIA, said there's no timetable for taking the new three-times-weekly service daily but the process already has begun.

"Having the direct service in place is a start," said Tan, who arrived in Las Vegas Friday night on SIA's inaugural flight to McCarran International Airport from Hong Kong and Singapore. "As they say in America, this makes it a whole new ballgame."

Tan made his comments in an interview following a ceremony in which SIA was officially welcomed to Las Vegas in a reception at the baggage claim area at McCarran's international terminal.

SIA's first flight arrived an hour late at 10:45 p.m., after leaving Hong Kong about 20 minutes late and encountering unusual wind conditions that further delayed the trip. Normally, an eastbound flight from Asia benefits from a tail wind. Passengers said the flight crew on the twin-engine Boeing 777 was on the intercom three times to apologize for the late arrival in Las Vegas.

About 90 percent of the 285 seats were filled on the 14-hour, 8,200-mile flight.

"I'm sorry we're late," Tan added in his address to well-wishers that greeted the flight, "but I understand Las Vegas never sleeps."

A daily flight to an overseas destination would be a first for McCarran.

While Las Vegas now has nonstop service from six countries, the only daily service is offered to Mexico and Canada. In addition to the new SIA flight to Hong Kong, airport officials said Virgin Atlantic has a route to London operating twice a week, Japan Airlines flies between Tokyo and Las Vegas five times a week, Condor Airlines has one flight a week from Frankfurt, Germany, on a seasonal basis and there are several other flights linking Las Vegas with cities in Mexico and Canada.

SIA officials said their Las Vegas plans have been in the works for at least two years. In recent weeks, marketing efforts have gone into high gear all over Southeast Asia. Los Angeles-based Chin Hwee Ng, senior vice president, Americas, for SIA, said much of the airline's message is to explain Las Vegas' growth in the past 10 years.

"This is one city that really needs no introduction," said Ng, who coordinated the launch of service on the U.S. end. "Our message has been to explain that Las Vegas really offers more than just gaming and that it's a nice place for families to go as well as gamblers."

While the focus of SIA's new flight has been on Hong Kong and Singapore, the airline route network extends throughout Southeast Asia. The airline serves four cities in China, four in India, three in Indonesia, two in Malaysia, two in Taiwan, two in Vietnam, one in Thailand and one in the Philippines as well as destinations in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Korea.

Tan said leisure travel, both domestically and internationally, already has rebounded in Southeast Asia from post-Sept. 11 lulls but, as in North America, business traffic has not been strong. Because the Hong Kong-Las Vegas route is expected to be dominated by leisure travelers, Tan is encouraged that the time is right for the airline's new flight and that residents from across Southeast Asia will be on future passenger lists.

Harry Kassap, manager of air transportation for McCarran and one of the behind-the-scenes players in the bid to attract SIA to Las Vegas, said he was pleased to see passengers from India, Thailand and Malaysia on the inaugural trip.

Kassap and Erika Brandvik, a spokeswoman for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, were among the Las Vegans on the first SIA flight in. They had gone overseas to make separate marketing calls.

Brandvik, who met with journalists in Singapore and Hong Kong, said SIA and travel executives are doing a good job of selling Las Vegas, right down to placing a classic film, Elvis Presley's "Viva Las Vegas," on the entertainment system SIA passengers have access to on their overseas flights.

Some Southeast Asian journalists are telling stories about Las Vegas from a first-hand perspective. About seven of them came to Las Vegas prior to the SIA launch and returned on the airline's first return trip Saturday morning. Accustomed to a tropical climate and densely packed cities such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, journalists were exposed to the wide-open expanse of the desert with helicopter rides to the Grand Canyon.

Tan said he expects the nonstop route to be a big seller, even though many of those traveling on SIA to the West Coast spent time in California in addition to taking a side trip to Las Vegas.

Meanwhile SIA began assembling the other half of the Las Vegas-Southeast Asia jigsaw puzzle by cranking up marketing efforts in Las Vegas -- an effort that may prove to be more challenging than selling Las Vegas overseas.

The airline has met with travel professionals in Las Vegas to explain SIA's network. Last week the company also hosted a lavish dinner for about 300 tourism executives that mixed performances by Asian culture dancers, presentations of SIA's television advertising campaign and a 30-minute set by Las Vegas performer Clint Holmes.

SIA also announced it was expanding its introductory ticket sale through Aug. 14 for trips originating in Las Vegas. Round-trip tickets can be had for $500 to Hong Kong and $600 to Singapore.

Tan said while leisure travelers will dominate the Hong Kong-Las Vegas flights, he expects a higher percentage of business travelers will find their way to SIA as Las Vegas casino interests begin building in Macau, an island resort that is a 45-minute hydrofoil ride from Hong Kong.

Las Vegas gaming executives Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson have been licensed to build casinos in Macau in a bid to expand that market.

SIA and Las Vegas tourism officials say they don't expect the emergence of Macau to cut into Las Vegas' market share because Las Vegas is far more mature a market than Macau and that high-rollers will continue to prefer Nevada's casinos and the entertainment, dining and shopping mix they offer. Officials also cite Las Vegas' affordability as a magnet to travelers.