Singapore Airlines to ramp up flights to key markets from March-October 2024 to meet demand
Flights to cities such as Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Dubai will reach or exceed pre-COVID frequencies.
FILE PHOTO: Singapore Airlines planes sit on the tarmac at Changi Airport in Singapore November 16, 2021. REUTERS/Caroline Chia
SINGAPORE: More Singapore Airlines (SIA) flights will be added for key destinations from end-March to October next year to support strong demand - a move that will see flight frequencies to some cities reach or exceed pre-pandemic levels.
Such destinations include Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Melbourne and Seattle, SIA said in a news release on Monday (Aug 7).
SIA will also deploy larger aircraft to increase capacity for some destinations.
From Mar 31, 2024, flights operating to and from Cairns in Australia will be on the 303-seater A350-900 medium-haul aircraft, instead of the current Boeing 737-8 narrowbody, which has 154 seats.
This is the first time in more than 20 years that a widebody aircraft is being deployed on this route, SIA said. The service will operate four times a week, instead of the current five.
SIA will also restore the use of its flagship Airbus A380 on the Frankfurt route, replacing the smaller A350-900 long-haul aircraft that currently operates the daily service.
“This marks the return of SIA’s Airbus A380 to continental Europe,” it said.
A fifth daily service between Singapore and Hong Kong will start from Oct 29, 2023, with a sixth to be added from Aug 1 next year, bringing frequencies back to
pre-pandemic levels.
The Singapore-Dubai route is among those that will see more flights than before the pandemic, with services set to increase from the current seven-times weekly to 11-times weekly from Mar 31, 2024.
The route between Singapore and Tokyo-Haneda will see four daily services by Sep 1, 2024, while Singapore-Da Nang will go up from four times a week to a daily service from Jul 1, 2024.
Services between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur will be ramped up to 66 times a week from the current 47 for the period between Mar 31, 2024 and Oct 26, 2024. Â
Flights to cities such as Melbourne and Darwin in Australia, Shanghai and Beijing in China, Copenhagen in Denmark, and Seattle and Houston in the United States will return to pre-COVID frequencies.
SIA senior vice president for marketing planning JoAnn Tan said: “With the release of SIA’s Northern Summer schedules, our customers can plan ahead and start to make their travel plans for 2024.
“Our customers will be able to enjoy greater choice and flexibility when they travel with us, as SIA continues to adjust and expand our network in response to demand patterns.”
In May, the airline reported a record annual profit of S$2.16 billion (US$1.63 billion), reversing three straight years of losses.
SIA and its budget arm Scoot carried 8.4 million passengers between April and June 2023, 65.5 per cent higher than a year before. The passenger load factor, which measures the percentage of available seating capacity filled, reached a record 88.9 per cent.
