Singapore Airlines Increases India Capacity As COVID Restrictions Lifted

Simple Flying

By Pranjal Pande

Published Apr 25, 2022

As Singapore scraps the last of its COVID restrictions, India is a critical market for the flag carrier.

All the Star Alliance carrier's A380 routes are once-daily. Photo: Andrew Curran | Simple Flying.

Singapore is dropping most of its COVID restrictions from Tuesday, including easing travel rules for vaccinated passengers. With no more testing needed, Singapore Airlines is focusing on its largest market currently: India. Here's a look at the capacity increase the airline has planned.

All about the Airbus A380

Since mid-March, Singapore Airlines has been redeploying the A380 in two crucial markets: New Delhi and Mumbai to Singapore. Mumbai was the first to receive the aircraft following a two-year gap on March 14th, while the first superjumbo landed in Delhi for the first time since 2020 on April 16th.

COVID travel restrictions have been progressively eased over the last three months, with Singapore going from requiring multiple on-arrival tests to, starting 26th April, dropping all testing for vaccinated travelers. Seeing the end of testing will be a massive boon for travel from India, with SIA hoping that it can cash in on demand over the summer.

The Boeing 777X aircraft was meant to replace the airline's reliable but aging workhorse, the Boeing 777-300ER, which has accumulated an average of 12.5 years of age. Photo: Singapore Airlines

While Delhi and Mumbai might be the biggest markets, Singapore has actually worked with low-cost arm Scoot to grow its presence across the country post-pandemic.

Most destinations for any airline

SIA and Scoot combined fly to 13 cities across India, matching Qatar Airways' impressive network. The mainline airline flies to Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, and Mumbai, maximizing revenue from premium travelers. Low-cost Scoot flies to more cities in the south, including Amritsar, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Tiruchirappalli, Trivandrum, and Visakhapatnam.

Singapore is home to both point-to-point and transit passengers, explaining the vast schedule currently in place. While India restricted connecting travel until March 27th, the door is now open for SIA to fly travelers to Australia and the West Coast as it once did.

With no destination 2,600 miles away, Singapore Airlines is trying to become a hub player in India once again. Photo: GCMap

According to ANI, in the first quarter of 2022, India made up the most visitors to the island country by a vast gap. In Q1, 54,530 passengers flew into Singapore from India, beating out the next two countries combined (Malaysia and Indonesia), for a total of 246,100 total passengers. However, the current numbers are not even 0.1% of the pre-pandemic figure of 4.69 million visitors in Q1 2019. Meanwhile, it does signify that a recovery is underway.

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Slowly rebuilding

Today, fares from India to Singapore remain relatively low, with tourism and VFR travel taking their time to pick up. Destinations that were open through the pandemic, such as the Maldives and Dubai, and major hubs like the US and UK still dominate flight schedules.

However, with Singapore Airlines pushing discounts and highlighting the lack of restrictions, it is only a matter of time before its A380s are filled to capacity with travelers again. For now, keep an eye out for traffic numbers in the coming months to see if the India strategy is paying off.

Have you flown with Singapore Airlines since the pandemic hit? Let us know in the comments!

Source: ANI