When travelling around Asia I always try to fly with Singapore Airlines.
Its aircraft are the most modern and up-to-date, its flight attendants are pleasant and elegant, inflight entertainment is superb and the planes arrive and depart on time. Just two weeks ago the carrier was able to boast that it had made a sweep of most of the Business Traveller Asia-Pacific 2000 annual awards in the airline category.
It was voted Best International Airline, with Best First Class, Best Business Class, Best Cabin Crew Service, Best Inflight Food, Best Inflight Entertainment, Best Comfort of Seating and Best Airline Wine Cellar. Its economy class, like all longhaul airlines, tends to be cramped, but at the back of the plane the cuisine is as good as on the business class of most European airlines. Most importantly, the airline had a 100 per cent safety record: Singapore Airlines had not had a single fatal accident in its 28-year history, if one excludes the crash in 1997 in Indonesia of a Boeing 737-300 of SilkAir, a wholly-owned subsidiary, killing all 104 people on board.
For that reason the catastrophe which struck the airline's Boeing 747 in Taipei on Tuesday, killing 78 passengers, will unnerve frequent flyers in the region more than would a crash by any other airline. The Taipei disaster was the equivalent of the Concorde going down in flames in Paris earlier this year. It meant that the best in the world was not good enough to ensure 100 per cent safety, even if an object on the runway caused the crash rather than a mechanical or pilot failure. Singapore Airlines is also one of the world's best-managed companies. The way it operated its fleet of 54 Boeing 747s, 19 Boeing 777s, 15 Airbus 340s and 20 Airbus 310s, which service 40 countries, earned it first place in the airline industry category in Fortune magazine's recent listings of the world's most admired companies.
In the category of product and services, it came second as most admired company in the world behind the New York Times.
Yesterday Singapore Airlines said it believed its reputation for safety was intact, despite the crash.
"It is the first involving fatalities in SIA's history," chairman Mr Michael Fam told a news conference at Singapore's Changi Airport.
"We do not expect this to set the company back at all. The company's reputation is intact as far as I'm concerned.
"It was an unfortunate accident. I don't think it should affect the confidence of our passengers nor should it affect the confidence of our shareholders." The shareholders saw their stock dropping three per cent in early trading yesterday but Mr Fam is probably right. Shares are likely to rebound, especially if the airline is not held responsible for the crash of Flight SQ006, which took place in driving rain and wind.
Confidence could erode nevertheless if the crew is held to have been partly responsible. Ironically, the crash came just one day after the airline reported 88 per cent higher pre-tax profits during the six months ended September 30th.
Steady improvement in Asian economies pushed operating profits up to $327 million during the period. With figures like this, the shareholders are doing well. But while regular passengers may still feel that Singapore Airlines is the best, they can no longer enjoy the confidence of knowing that it has an unblemished safety record.