7-8-2023 (SINGAPORE) Singapore Airlines (SIA) has announced plans to significantly increase the frequency of its flights to key markets from March to October 2024. The move aims to restore more of its services, including those to Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Melbourne, to pre-pandemic levels in response to strong demand for air travel.
The national carrier revealed that it will not only ramp up flight frequencies but also enhance capacity by utilizing larger aircraft on certain routes. Notably, SIA will replace the single-aisle Boeing 737-8 aircraft on flights to and from Cairns, Australia, with the Airbus A350-900 medium-haul jet. This strategic change will mark the first deployment of a wide-body plane on the route in over two decades.
Furthermore, the larger Airbus A380 will replace the A350-900 long-haul jet on a daily service between Singapore and Frankfurt, Germany. This shift signifies the return of SIA’s superjumbo aircraft to continental Europe.
Starting from March 31, 2024, SIA will also introduce A350-900 medium-haul planes on flights connecting Singapore and Male in the Maldives, replacing the smaller Boeing 737-8.
The airline’s services between Singapore and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates are set to exceed pre-Covid-19 levels, with an increase to 11 times weekly from March 31, 2024.
SIA’s schedules will also witness frequencies reaching or surpassing pre-pandemic levels on various routes. Flights to and from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport will be raised to four flights daily from September 1, 2024. The service to and from Danang in Vietnam will see an increase to 14 times weekly starting July 1, 2024.
Moreover, flights to Ahmedabad in western India, Darwin, and Perth in Australia, Copenhagen in Denmark, and Seattle and Houston in the United States will be reinstated to pre-Covid-19 levels.
In a bid to enhance the second-busiest international route globally, SIA will increase flights between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur from 47 times weekly to 66 times by August 2024.
Additional services will be introduced, such as a third daily flight between Singapore and Beijing from May 2024, aligning with pre-pandemic frequencies. Furthermore, the airline plans to raise its daily flights to Hong Kong from four to six, utilizing A350-900 long-haul jets for the additional services.
SIA is also set to reintroduce direct flights between Singapore and Barcelona, Spain, with a twice-weekly service commencing from June 2, 2024.
JoAnn Tan, Senior Vice President for Marketing Planning at SIA, highlighted the significance of the airline’s Northern Summer schedules, allowing customers to plan their travel arrangements for 2024.
During the period between April and June 2023, Singapore Airlines and its budget subsidiary, Scoot, witnessed a notable increase in passenger numbers, carrying 8.4 million passengers, marking a 65.5% rise compared to the previous year.
The carrier’s passenger load factor achieved a record high of 88.1%.
In late July, the SIA Group expressed its intention to reach an average capacity of approximately 90% of pre-Covid-19 levels by March 2024.
While the airline did not provide specific details about the impact of the upcoming frequency changes on post-March 2024 capacity, SIA posted a record quarterly net profit of $734 million for the first quarter of its fiscal year that ended on June 30, attributing the success to pent-up demand for air travel.
