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Singapore Airlines, Scoot and Jetstar Asia restarting flights to more destinations
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A Singapore Airlines employee wears a medical mask for protection against the novel coronavirus outbreak at LAX Tom Bradley International Terminal on February 2, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. (AFP/David McNew)
S
ingapore Airlines (SIA) Group and budget carrier Jetstar Asia will be flying to more destinations and at a slightly increased frequency as the gradual recovery of the carriers continues.
Scoot, the budget arm of SIA Group, said Tuesday that it will restart flights to Tokyo, Osaka, Palembang, Pekanbaru and Yogyakarta this month, adding these to the 13 locations it was flying to last month.
Meanwhile, SIA said last week that it will begin adding more flights to cities such as Jakarta, London and Sydney in the next three months.
It will also restart flights to Surabaya in Indonesia this month.
With the gradual increase in flights, SIA Group's passenger capacity will reach about 11 percent of pre-pandemic levels by the end of November.
In comparison, it had been operating at 7 percent of its pre-COVID-19 capacity last month.
Jetstar Asia said on Monday that it will restart flights to Phnom Penh in Cambodia on Sept. 18.
Read also: Singapore Airlines Group passengers can now transit via Singapore from Indonesia
Aviation analyst Shukor Yusof from Endau Analytics said that despite the increased flights, the outlook for airlines remained bleak and they would have to endure the situation for a while more.
"While it won't help the bottom line, any incremental rise, however small, represents a psychological uplift for staff and passengers," said Mr Shukor.
The International Air Transport Association has said demand for air travel is unlikely to return to the levels before the pandemic until 2024.
In the meantime, beyond increasing flights, the local carriers have also announced new initiatives to retain customers.
SIA said Tuesday that it will tweak its loyalty schemes to allow passengers to more easily retain their loyalty status.
Jetstar Asia said on Monday that it will launch a program to offer passengers additional assurances about their safety while flying.
These include measures such as giving each passenger a sanitizing wipe, sequenced boarding and cleaning of planes during flights.
This article appeared on The Straits Times newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta Post
