This article was written by Robert Sim of ASIA 361.
Scoot’s SG50 celebrations took to the skies with an unique party up in the air, 40,000 feet high in its new B787, Maju-lah. Maju-lah was painted with a commemorative SG50-themed livery in celebration of Singapore’s golden jubilee.
To secure a seat on this flight, members of the public had to win in Scoot’s Garang Challenges contest. The winners can invite their friends as well. Also present were Scoot’s SG50 partners of which their company logos are proudly represented on Maju-lah‘s livery.
To dress the party up, Scoot spared no effort to make sure invited party goers felt that they were going to a party and not just another flight, starting right from the check-in counters.
Maju-lah took off from Changi Airport at 7.30pm. Under the captain’s suggestion and the party goers’ unanimous agreement, the take-off was done with full power. The inclement weather that follows immediately made the starting of the flight felt like a roller coaster ride. The captain immediately steered the plane out from the pockets of turbulent air and the party started with no other issues.
Upon reaching cruising altitude, Fly Entertainment’s Irene Ang led the festivities that celebrated all thing Singapore. The party goers, now split into teams led by FLY artistes Tosh Zhang, Joshua Tan, Wong Weiliang, Maxi Lim, Rebecca Tan, Patricia Mok, Hirzi Zulkiflie and Munah Bagharib, completed with each other in various fun games.
Local entertainers, Benjamin Kheng and Jill-Marie Thomas then led a sing-along with classic national day songs such as Count On Me, Singapore and Home. Not to be outdone, Kumar did a standup routine of his take on the unique quirks of Singapore life.
The entertainment arranged for the party revellers cannot be made more comfortable than the fact that it is held within the B787 Dreamliner. Upon entering the aircraft, I felt it was posh for a low cost carrier. The economic seats, though thin, were comfortable to sit in, unlike the conventional B777 seats, and there was plenty of legroom even in the economy seats. The plane itself comes with mood lightings, which can assist in making passengers more comfortable through visual cues. The construct of the aircraft itself, done with carbon fibre, allows for a lower cabin pressure, making the flight more comfortable than the conventional flights.
The inflight food selection is also comparatively more palatable as well. As gathered from Dominic Low from Scoot, the new 20-strong B787 fleet, mixed with 787-8 and 787-9 variants, will allow the company to better plan the capacity for seasonality for the various routes that the company serves.
The SG50 Garang in the Air Party was the highlight and finale in a series of activities that kicked off from June this year. Reaching over 1.2 million users online and offline, the campaign gathered over 400 submissions and 87,000 unique engagement across the Garang Challenges. Winners from the challenges each won a pair of tickets to the coveted party flight plus Scoot travel vouchers.
