Budget carrier Scoot's maiden flight delayed

SINGAPORE - Local budget carrier Scoot's maiden flight was off to a bumpy start with a delay of almost two hours on Monday night due to a technical fault.

The Boeing 777-200 jet was originally scheduled for departure at 11.25pm, eventually took off at about 1.05am, according to reports.

The flight with a full load of about 400 paying passengers, guests and members of the media left Terminal 2 at Singapore Changi Airport 20 minutes later then scheduled. However, it turned back on the runway and returned to the boarding area at 12.20am.

The Straits Times (ST) reported that passengers remained calm and were served milk and cookies.
'It's their first flight, so I expected some teething problems,' said teacher Gamar Annisa, 25, to ST.

Reporters on-board, aviation enthusiasts and industry members tweeted about the flight delay on social media site Twitter.

Mr Tony Fernandes, CEO of competitor airline AirAsia, reposted humorous tweets by others on the event, including a photo of the milk and cookies offered with a word play on the acronym Scoot - Singapore Carrier Offers Oreo Treats. However, Mr Fernandes did not personally comment on the issue on Twitter.

According to reports, the plane landed in Sydney at about 8.20am (Singapore time) today.
The subsidiary of Singapore Airlines will fly to four destinations in its first year. Flights to Gold Coast, Australia will start from next Tuesday, it will fly to Bangkok from July 5 and to Tianjin, China from August 23.

According to ST, some 100,000 tickets for flights this month have been sold since late March, when they went on sale.