Two weeks after the lucrative route was partially open to budget airlines, the national carriers are under no pressure to make drastic cuts.

Competition has had minimal impact on yields and traffic, SIA chief executive officer Chew Choon Seng and MAS head Idris Jala told reporters on Monday on the sidelines of the inaugural Singapore Airshow Aviation Leadership Summit at the Raffles City Convention Centre.

It took six years of lobbying for governments on both sides of the Causeway to clear the runway for a total of four budget flights a day between Singapore and KL, which Tiger Airways, Jetstar Asia and Malaysia?s AirAsia started operating on Feb 1.

Between them, SIA and MAS operate a total of 13 daily flights, offering more than 21,000 round-trip seats a week - four times the capacity of the budget boys.

Mr Idris said: 'Things are not as bad as we had thought....We are looking at the loads on a daily basis and depending on how it (competition) develops, we will respond accordingly.'

Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.