The Indonesian capital of Jakarta has more departures by Singapore Airlines this week than any other destination. It is one of 42 bookable passenger destinations bookable. However, Singapore Airlines has just 32% of its pre-pandemic flights, showing how long the road ahead will be.

Singapore Airlines Airbus A350-941 9V-SGG (3)
Singapore Airlines has 272 departures from its Changi hub in the week of September 24th. The A350-900 (pictured) has 59.7% of the flights, distantly followed by the B737-800 (16.5%), the B777-300ER (14.7%) and the B787-10 (9.1%). Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying.

42 routes for Singapore Airlines this week

Singapore Airlines has 42 bookable passenger destinations this week, starting September 24th. When combined, it has some 272 outbound departures from its Changi hub, around 39 a day. This level of flights is just 32% of what it had in the same week in 2019, OAG data confirms.

With 24 weekly flights, the short link to Jakarta, 475 nautical miles away, is the most-served this week, as shown below. Los Angeles features highly, with the California city served both non-stop (nine-weekly) and one-stop via Tokyo Narita (three-weekly).

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Los Angeles is one of four one-stop routes, joining Barcelona (three-weekly via Milan Malpensa), Cape Town (twice-weekly via Johannesburg), and Rome Fiumicino (three-weekly via Copenhagen). Rome to Changi via Denmark adds about 800 miles to the journey each way.

  • Jakarta: 24 weekly departures from Singapore
  • Kuala Lumpur: 18
  • Heathrow: 18
  • Bangkok: 14
  • Phuket: 14
  • Los Angeles: 12 (non-stop and one-stop)
  • Tokyo Narita: 11
  • Auckland: 10
  • Frankfurt: 10
  • Phnom Penh: 9
Singapore Airlines' network week beginning September 24th
Manila isn't bookable on Singapore Airlines' website but is still flying per Flightradar24, perhaps for cargo reasons. Image: OAG Mapper.

Significant changes to the top-10

Singapore to Jakarta is number-one, just as it is in normal times, OAG data shows. However, the rest of the top-10 list is quite different from previously. Gone are Hong Kong, Shanghai Pudong, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Denpasar, Tokyo Haneda, and Seoul Incheon. Four of these are still served but just far less often. For example, while Pudong was 28-weekly, it now has only a once-weekly service.

Sydney and Melbourne – together with Adelaide, Brisbane, and Perth – have been cut and are no longer bookable, along with Depensar, serving the usually very popular Indonesian island of Bali.

Earlier this month, Karl Schubert, Singapore Airlines' Head of Corporate Affairs for the Southwest Pacific, said, "We don't have the clarity we need to have [or] the confidence to operate [to Australia]." While Denpasar is to resume from November, a no-nonsense approach for reopening Australia's borders is desperately needed.

Singapore Airlines 737-800
The 162-seat B737-800, which has 150 economy seats and 12 in business, is used to Bandar, Kuala Lumpur, Male, Phnom Penh, and Phuket. Photo: Singapore Airlines.

A long way to go

Singapore Airlines remains very heavily affected by ongoing restrictions, both those imposed by itself and elsewhere. China, India, Australia, and the Philippines are severely impacted. In the week of September 24th, 2019, the Star Alliance carrier had 327 outbound departures to them, OAG shows, or 40% of its total. Now it has just three departures –  one each to Chongqing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen – and 1% of its total.

This has resulted in exceptionally low demand and, therefore, capacity deployment. In August, Singapore Airlines carried just 133,000 passengers with a seat load factor of 19.2%. It had far too much capacity relative to demand, a reminder of far it – and the industry generally –  still has to travel. Europe is no exception.

Have you any plans to fly Singapore Airlines this year? Let us know in the comments.