SIA Group adds Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan flights to meet 'buoyant demand'

SINGAPORE — The Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group is adding flights to key destinations in East Asia including Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan as entry requirements ease and travel demand rises. 

The SIA Group passenger network is projected to cover 110 destinations in 36 countries and territories, including Singapore, on Nov 1, the company said in a news release on Monday (Oct 3). 

"This will allow SIA and Scoot to meet the buoyant demand for international travel, particularly towards the year-end holiday season and in the first quarter of 2023," it said. 

MORE FLIGHTS TO JAPAN

From Oct 30, SIA will add a second daily service (SQ636) to Tokyo's Haneda Airport, on top of the existing daily service (SQ634) to Haneda and the daily service (SQ638) to Tokyo's Narita Airport. 

Together with the daily service (SQ12) from Singapore to Los Angeles via Tokyo's Narita, the airline will operate four daily flights to Tokyo. 

Also on Oct 30, the SQ618 service from Singapore to Osaka will resume, bringing flight frequency between the two destinations to twice daily. The frequency of the SQ656 service to Fukuoka will also be increased to three flights per week. 

Currently, Scoot operates daily flights to Tokyo's Narita Airport, as well as four flights a week to Tokyo's Narita Airport via Taipei and five flights a week to Osaka. 

From Oct 30, flights TR808 to Narita Airport, TR898 to Narita via Taipei and TR818 to Osaka will all become daily services, said the SIA Group. 

Scoot will also mount seasonal four-times-weekly non-stop flights to Sapporo (SQ890) from Nov 2, 2022 to Feb 27, 2023. 

Another three-times-weekly service to Sapporo via Taipei, TR892, will also commence on Nov 1. 

ADDITIONAL SERVICES TO SEOUL, TAIPEI

SIA will add a new daily service to Seoul (SQ606) from Oct 30. Together with the two current daily flights to the South Korean capital (SQ600 and SQ608), the airline will operate three flights to Seoul each day. 

Scoot will also resume flight TR896 as a five-times-weekly Singapore-Taipei-Seoul service on Oct 30. From Nov 5, the low-cost carrier will also increase the frequency of flights to Jeju to five times a week, up from the current thrice-weekly service. 

Flight SQ876 will resume as a four-times-weekly service to Taipei from Oct 31, said SIA Group. This is on top of the current three-times-weekly service to Taipei (SQ878). 

With Scoot stepping up its services to Narita Airport and to Sapporo via Taipei, as well as the resumption of the Singapore-Taipei-Seoul services, the low-cost carrier will be operating 18 flights to Taipei each week. 

MORE FLIGHTS TO HONG KONG, MAINLAND CHINA

The SIA Group said that SIA also aims to increase its twice-daily services to Hong Kong to three times daily, subject to regulatory approvals. 

Currently, Scoot operates flights to Hong Kong four times each week. From Oct 30, they will operate a daily service to the city.

SIA resumed twice-weekly Beijing-Singapore services on Sept 27. SQ842, a weekly service to Chengdu, will also resume from Oct 11. 

The airline aims to increase frequencies and resume services to more points in China, subject to regulatory approvals, said the SIA Group. 

Scoot also resumed weekly flights into Fuzhou and increased the flight frequency to Nanjing to twice weekly on Sept 26.

The low-cost airline also resumed a weekly service (TR188) to Hangzhou on Monday and will reinstate a weekly service to Zhengzhou (TR116) from Oct 12 and a weekly service to Wuhan (TR120) from Oct 13. 

From Oct 11, flight TR138 to Tianjin will be increased to a twice-weekly service, up from the current one flight a week. 

Also in October, Scoot will launch operations to Indonesia's Lombok and Makassar, as well as resume services to Pekanbaru and Yogyakarta. 

SIA senior vice president of marketing planning JoAnn Tan said that the SIA Group is seeing strong demand for air travel towards the year-end holiday season, buoyed by the further easing of entry requirements in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. 

"Many customers are especially keen on destinations that have remained largely closed over the last few years," said Ms Tan. 

She added that the group aims to offer more value and options for its customers as they make their holiday plans, and that the company will be "nimble" in adjusting their services in response to the demand for air travel. CNA