• 

  Singapore Airlines

  IATA/ICAO Code:

  SQ/SIA

  Airline Type:

  Full Service Carrier

  Hub(s):

  Singapore Changi Airport

  Year Founded:

  1972

  Alliance:

  Star Alliance

  CEO:

  Goh Choon Phong

  Country:

  Singapore

Sensing high demands as borders in Asia gradually open up, Singapore Airlines has announced a slew of new and additional flights to many countries in the region. After months of growth, the airline witnessed flat sales in August but is ready to bolster its network going into the winter schedule.

Strengthening network in East Asia

On October 3rd, Singapore Airlines announced that the group will add flights and increase services to several key destinations, particularly to major cities in East Asia, as borders in several countries become more porous.

This comes just in time as SIA and its low-cost arm Scoot head into the winter months marked by the holiday season when demand is particularly high and spills over into the first quarter of the following year.

JoAnn Tan, Senior Vice President Marketing Planning, Singapore Airlines, commented,

“Buoyed by the further easing of entry requirements in Hong Kong SAR, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, China we are seeing strong demand for air travel towards the year-end holiday season. Many customers are especially keen on destinations that have remained largely closed over the last few years.”

“The SIA Group aims to offer even more value and options for our customers as they make their holiday plans, and we will be nimble in adjusting our services in response to the demand for air travel.”

Schedule

Some of the key destinations that SIA is targeting include:

Japan

The carrier will start an additional service to Tokyo Haneda as flight SQ636 from October 30th. This will be on top of the existing daily SQ634 service to Haneda and daily SQ638 service to Tokyo’s Narita Airport. It also operates a flight to LAX (SQ12), making a stopover in Narita.

Osaka will also have another flight, SQ618 from October 30th, while SQ656 service to Fukuoka will increase to three flights per week.

South Korea

SIA will add a third daily flight to Seoul (SQ606) from October 30th; it already flies SQ600 and SQ608 daily to the Korean capital. On the same day, Scoot will also increase the frequency of flights to the holiday city of Jeju to five-times weekly, up from thrice a week currently.

Taiwan

SQ876 will come back as a four-time weekly service to Taipei on top of the current three-times weekly SQ878 flight to the city.

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Hong Kong

Regulatory approvals permitting, the airline plans to increase its twice-daily services to Hong Kong to three a day.

Mainland China

Singapore Airlines will bring back SQ842, a weekly service to Chengdu, from October 11th and is waiting for regulatory approvals to start more services to Mainland China. It already operates a twice-weekly flight to Beijing, starting on September 27th.

Scoot also has a bunch of flights to Mainland China planned with a weekly TR188 service to Hangzhou from October 3rd, a weekly TR116 service to Zhengzhou from October 12th, and a weekly TR120 service to Wuhan from October 13th, among others on the schedule.

Growth

SIA began seeing green shoots earlier this year when demand from across the world, including from neighboring India, began picking up. In fact, by October end, the airline aims to restore its pre-pandemic capacity in India.

This comes shortly after reports that August was a flat month for the airline, with sales dipping after months of steady growth. But with the detailed flight schedule on SIA’s website, it looks like it intends to keep busy for the winter schedule.

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