By Michelle Tay

Singapore Airlines (SIA) will be on the move next year.

The airline's downtown service centre, currently at Paragon Shopping Centre on Orchard Road, will relocate a few doors away to the upcoming Ion Orchard mall at Orchard Turn.

When contacted, Mr Stephen Forshaw, SIA's vice-president of public affairs, said: 'Singapore Airlines will be moving its service centre in Paragon to Ion Orchard mid-next year.

'Details of the new service centre will be announced to our customers in due course.'

He declined to disclose how big the service centre at Ion will be.

When contacted, Ion would not comment on this either, but it did say SIA's is 'likely (to be the) only airline service centre' at the mall.

SIA currently occupies two retail spaces in Paragon. One, on the ground floor, houses its Priority Passenger Service Club Service Centre for frequent flyers.

The other, on the second floor, houses its service centre, where customers can make reservations and pick up tickets.

Paragon would only confirm that 'SIA's lease expires next year'.

But it told The Straits Times earlier this year that SIA's second-floor space will make way for Italian label Gucci, which will have a two-storey store on that corner of Bideford Road.

It will also have a five-storey, custom-designed facade on the building's exterior.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on September 11, 2008.