Drukair Starts Singapore – Dili Flights Under Arrangement with East Timor’s Air Timor

Not having any aircraft in its fleet, Air Timor – East Timor’s sole international airline – has been relying on other airlines to operate its flights.

Starting yesterday, the airline resumed flights between Singapore and East Timor’s capital Dili through a charter arrangement with Bhutan’s Drukair.

Drukair Starts Singapore - Dili Flights Under Arrangement with East Timor's Air Timor
Drukair is the flag carrier of Bhutan. (Credit: Aminul Hassan)

KB900/901: Singapore – Dili and Back

Air Timor’s new flights started on October 31, 2019, and will operate between Singapore (SIN) and Dili (DIL) twice a week under Drukair flight numbers with the following schedule:

  • KB900 / SIN – DIL / 3:30AM – 8:15AM (Thu & Sun)
  • KB901 / DIL – SIN / 9:15AM – 11:55AM (Thu & Sun)

If you are wondering why the route originates in Singapore rather than Dili, that’s because rather than dedicating one of its aircraft exclusively to Air Timor, Drukair operates these flights between its own flights to and from Singapore.

In other words, the Drukair A319 departs Paro in Butan bound for Singapore via Guwahati in India on Wednesday and Saturday nights, and does the Air Timor rotation the following day before returning to Singapore via Guwahati.

According to Tandi Wangchuk, the new flight helps Drukairir use its underutilized aircraft more efficiently:

Drukair has been exploring charter opportunities during our night halts for a long time and hope this venture ushers more such opportunities in the future. The more efficiently an aircraft is utilized, the operational cost reduces for an airline.

This route marks Drukair’s first commercial operation into the Southern Hemisphere. The charter agreement is initially valid for one year.

Air Timor which was known as Austasia Airlines until 2010, previously operated flights between Singapore and Dili with an A319 wet-leased from Silk Air. Those flights were terminated on March 30, 2019.

Besides Singapore, the airline serves – in cooperation with TransNusa, an Indonesian airline – the Indonesian city of Kupang as well. That route is operated three times a week using ATR 72-600 aircraft.

Considering the very limited services offered out of Dili airport, the resumption of the Singapore route means a significant improvement in the country’s connectivity with the rest of the world.

Aside from Kupang and Singapore, Dili has non-stop links to the Australian city of Darwin operated by Airnorth and to Denpasar. The latter is served by three Indonesian airlines: Citilink, NAM Air, and Sriwijaya Air.

Summary

Considering that the aircraft operating Drukair’s flights to Singapore spent considerable time on the ground in Singapore – and thus were underutilized – this new charter agreement seems to be a perfect way to get the aircraft some more flying time.

After all, an aircraft sitting on the ground is an aircraft not making money.

At the same time, restarting flights between Singapore and Dili is likely something that Air Timor has been looking to do for quite a while making the situation a win-win.

While chances are low, I would love to try this flight one day. Druk Air is an exotic airline in-and-of itself. However, this flight takes the exoticness to the next level.

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