Singapore Airlines, SilkAir suspend some flights to China over coronavirus outbreak
SINGAPORE — Singapore Airlines (SIA) and its regional wing SilkAir will suspend some flights to China after fears over the novel coronavirus outbreak affected demand "significantly", Singapore's national carrier said on Monday (Feb 10).
SINGAPORE — Singapore Airlines (SIA) and its regional wing SilkAir will suspend some flights to China after fears over the novel coronavirus outbreak affected demand "significantly", Singapore's national carrier said on Monday (Feb 10).
"Minimum connectivity" to several key cities will be maintained.
The move comes after demand for air travel between Singapore and China declined significantly as a result of the outbreak, said SIA on its website.
As a result, services to some Chinese destinations will be "temporarily suspended until the situation improves", it added.
Several SIA flights between Singapore and Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou will be suspended between Feb 4 and March 29.
Some SilkAir flights between Singapore and Shenzhen, Xiamen, Chengdu and Chongqing will be halted during that period.
SIA said that the group will maintain some connectivity to key cities.
"There are still many Singaporeans working and living in China now, many of whom will still require connectivity between Singapore and China," said SIA.
"As the national carrier, we will continue to maintain minimum connectivity to the key cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing for now despite the reduced demand," added SIA.
SIA had said on Jan 31 said it would reduce capacity on some of its routes to China in February due to the growing scale of the coronavirus epidemic.
SIA's low-cost carrier Scoot also suspended flights to 11 Chinese cities from early February until the end of March and reduced frequencies to eight other Chinese destinations.
Singapore on Friday raised the Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (Dorscon) level to Orange, after several cases of coronavirus without travel history to mainland China or links to previous cases.
The virus has infected 45 people in Singapore as of Monday, seven of whom have been discharged. CNA
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