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Singapore Airlines Group (SIA) and budget carrier Jetstar Asia will fly to more destinations and slightly more frequently as the gradual recovery of airlines continues.
Scoot, the budget arm of the SIA Group, said yesterday that this month it will restart flights to Tokyo, Osaka, Palembang, Pekanbaru and Yogyakarta, adding them to the 13 locations it flew to last month.
Meanwhile, SIA said last week that it will start adding more flights to cities like 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, the SIA Group’s passenger capacity will reach around 11 percent of pre-pandemic levels by the end of November.
By comparison, it had been operating at 7% of its pre-Covid-19 capacity last month.
Jetstar Asia said on Monday that it will restart flights to Phnom Penh in Cambodia on September 18.
Endau Analytics’ aviation analyst Shukor Yusof said that despite the increase in flights, the outlook for airlines remained bleak and they would have to put up with the situation for a while longer.
“While it will not help the bottom line, any incremental increase, no matter how small, represents a psychological boost for staff and passengers,” Shukor said.
The International Air Transport Association has said that demand for air travel is unlikely to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2024.
Meanwhile, beyond the increase in flights, local airlines have also announced new initiatives to retain customers.
SIA said yesterday that it will modify 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 guarantees about their safety while flying.
These include measures such as giving each passenger a sanitizing wipe, sequenced boarding, and aircraft cleaning during flights.
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