Our national carrier Singapore Airlines (SIA) has been badly affected by the plunge in passenger demand due to Covid-19, with passenger capacity way below pre-pandemic levels.
However, service is slowly edging closer to normal, with SIA Group expecting to reach 15% of capacity by the end of the year.
On Sunday (4 Oct), SIA and SilkAir announced that they’ll resuming flights to 4 more destinations and increasing the frequency of some existing routes.
The positive news was announced in a news update on SIA’s website on Sunday.
It said by the end of Dec, the SIA Group’s passenger capacity will increase to about 15% of its levels before Covid-19 hit.
Previously, the airline had said that its passenger capacity will hit about 11% by the end of November.
For those who’ve obtained permission to travel, SIA and SilkAir will now resume direct flights to 4 more destinations.
The 4 destinations are:
These flights will be reinstated over the next 3 months, with flights to Fukuoka returning on 5 Nov.
Flights to Bandar Seri Begawan will restart on 1 Nov, with Kathmandu returning on 10 Oct while those heading to Male will have to wait till 1 Dec.
With these additions, the total number of destinations from Singapore will grow to 37, SIA said.
The SIA Group has also increased the frequency on certain existing routes in the next 3 months to the end of the year.
For example, the number of flights to Hong Kong, Dhaka and Amsterdam will be increased.
SIA will also fly daily to Melbourne by November. In December, most days will have 2 flights to the Australian city.
The Bangkok-Singapore route will also have a flight everyday by December, after the service was reinstated in June.
More flight schedules to North Asia, South-east Asia and West Asia, as well as other parts of the world, can be seen on the SIA website.
Unfortunately, it’s still possible that your flight may be cancelled — That’s even if the flight was originally scheduled from Oct to Dec.
Thus, do check the updated schedules, as flights not listed there will be cancelled, SIA said.
Passengers affected by cancellations will be notified via SMS and email.
Some of the flights in the schedules may also not be on sale any more, due to travel restrictions in the respective destinations. That includes the number of passengers that are allowed.
Above all, it’s advisable to check the schedules regularly for updates.
Do also take note that Singapore currently has fast-lane travel arrangements with only certain countries, mostly for business and official travel, so do check up whether you qualify for such travel before booking tickets.
Despite the lingering uncertainty, the increase in flights is good news for our national airline, which has seen a drastic drop in profits since the onset of the pandemic.
As the airline undergoes staff cuts and searches for alternative sources of income, we can’t wait to see it return as soon as possible to what it does best — flying.
Let’s hope leisure travel to certain safe destinations resumes sooner than later so SIA – as well as travel-yearning Singaporeans – can have a timely year-end boost.
Featured images adapted from Facebook and Facebook.
Though stallholders had seen her there, none of them reported it to the authorities.
His cause of death is unknown.
The items covered the entire expanse of the corridor.
It never hurts to be prepared if you’re travelling to earthquake-prone regions.
SIA had offered 10,000 KrisFlyer miles each, but they turned down the offer.
Customers praised the stall for having good food at a cheap price.