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Singapore Airlines will boost frequencies to East Asia and Southeast Asia destinations, resume flights to Busan, and add Airbus A380 services to Australia from next March
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The ramp-up should see SIA’s flight frequencies reach or exceed pre-pandemic levels in multiple destinations across East and Southeast Asia by March 2024
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The airline says it sees stronger demand for flights to destinations across the region, parts of East Asia, and Australia
Singapore Airlines (SIA) says it will be boosting its East Asia and Southeast Asia frequencies, resuming flights to Busan, and increasing Airbus A380 services to Australia during the Northern Summer operating season from March 26 to October 29 next year.
The service ramp-up in support of strong projected demand to these destinations in 2023 should see the Singapore flag carrier’s flight frequencies reach or exceed pre-pandemic levels in multiple destinations across East Asia and Southeast Asia by March 2024.
These include Bangkok in Thailand; Busan and Seoul in South Korea; Fukuoka, Nagoya, and Osaka in Japan; Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam; Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia; Siem Reap in Cambodia; and Taipei in Taiwan.
In addition, in Australia, Melbourne will get a new daily A380 service and Sydney will get a second daily A380 service.
“Looking ahead to 2023, we see stronger demand for flights to destinations across Southeast Asia, parts of East Asia, and Australia,” said JoAnn Tan, SIA senior vice-president for marketing planning.
In May this year, SIA said it narrowed its losses in financial year 2021/22 by 78% to S$962 million as international air travel recovered after COVID-related global border restrictions eased.
“As we restore our network to these regions closer to pre-pandemic levels, our customers have even more flight options as they make their holiday plans.”
SIA will reinstate flights to Busan from June 2, 2023, with SQ616 (Singapore to Busan) and SQ615 (Busan to Singapore), operating four weekly services on the Boeing 737-8. The carrier will add a fourth daily service between Singapore and Seoul, SQ612 and SQ611, from June 1 with the Boeing 787-10.
From May 1, 2023, SIA will increase the flight frequencies of SQ618 (Singapore to Osaka) and SQ619 (Osaka to Singapore) from four times weekly to a daily service. This will bring services to Osaka to 14 times a week, the airline said.
SIA will operate SQ892 and SQ893, a daily service between Singapore and Hong Kong using the A380 aircraft. It will also reinstate SQ896 and SQ897, a daily service between the two cities, with the Airbus A350-900 medium-haul aircraft, from October 1, 2023. This will see SIA operating four daily flights to Hong Kong.
SIA will upgrade its four times weekly SQ876 flight (Singapore to Taipei) and SQ877 (Taipei to Singapore) to a daily service from March 26. On May 31, the carrier will also upgrade to daily its three times weekly SQ878 and SQ879 flight between Singapore and Taipei. This will bring up the weekly services to Taipei to 14 times a week.
The airline said it will add a fifth daily service, SQ706 and SQ705, between Singapore and Bangkok, from October 1. From March 26, SIA will also add a fourth daily service, SQ726 and SQ725, between Singapore and Phuket.
For the Southwest Pacific, SIA will resume its A380 flight to Melbourne after almost four years on May 16, and deploy a second daily A380 to Sydney from 17 May 2023.
The A380 will replace the 777-300ER on SQ237 from Singapore to Melbourne, and the return service SQ228. SIA will also operate the A380 on SQ221 from Singapore to Sydney and the return flight SQ232, instead of the A350-900 medium-haul.
As part of its review of travel demand and capacity needs, SIA said it will also adjust other parts of its network.
From May 15, it will operate the Boeing 777-300ER on the daily Singapore-Frankfurt-New York (JFK) service, instead of the Airbus A380. SIA’s 777-300ER aircraft offer First Class cabins, which include the full roster of the airline’s world-class products and amenities.
Customers will continue to enjoy two daily non-stop services from Singapore to New York – to John F. Kennedy International Airport, and to Newark Liberty International Airport.
Flights between Singapore and Los Angeles will operate thrice weekly, instead of a daily service, from March 26. Customers will still be able to take two existing daily flights to Los Angeles via the non-stop service SQ38 and SQ37 between the two cities, or flights SQ12 and SQ11 via Tokyo (Narita).
