More healthy travel tips to be made available for all SIA flights

Singapore Airlines, which already provides its customers with health tips in its inflight magazine and an inflight video, is introducing an information brochure on healthy air travel when customers book tickets to fly.

The brochure, which will provide clear information on ways of minimising the risk of illness while flying, will be made available at SIA sales offices and travel agencies, as well as the SIA website if tickets are booked via the Internet.

Explained Mr Yap Kim Wah, SIA's Senior Vice President (Marketing Services): "We recognise international public concern about the DVT issue. SIA has been at the forefront of providing information on travel health through our inflight video system since early last year.

"Our plan is to make this information available before the journey as well, from the time the passenger books a ticket. We believe those with health concerns will feel more comfortable about air travel if they are given advice before they fly."

Health tips will also be displayed at Singapore Airlines check-in counters and on board the aircraft, where they will be printed on laminated cards, placed in each seat pocket. These tips will advise passengers how to relieve stress, minimise jet lag, and reduce the risk of motion sickness, heart conditions and deep vein thrombosis (DVT). The tips will also be useful to those with pre-existing medical conditions such as asthma and chest diseases, heart disease and diabetes.

SIA will continue its long-standing approach of providing health tips in its inflight magazine, Silver Kris, and on its in-flight video system, KrisWorld. From February this year, the existing ten 2-minute TravelWise videos will be consolidated into one 15-minute travel health program, which will be screened on one of the 21 video channels. In addition, a shorter 2-minute information video will be aired before each movie. Cabin announcements directing passengers' attention to the health tips will be made during the flight.

SIA is the only major airline currently providing passengers with health information through in-flight video.

As a further step towards even healthier air travel, SIA will actively encourage airline-industry bodies to adopt uniform codes of practice, to ensure all airline passengers are provided with proper, concise health information before and during their flight. The linkage between DVT and long-haul flights is still medically unclear, and SIA will encourage further industry-wide research into this and other issues.

At SIA, we are consistently developing new ways to make sure the travel experience is healthy and comfortable for our passengers. We see these steps as another phase of that process.