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Tue, September 15, 2020 – 6:41 pm
SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) will permanently suspend services to Canberra, Dusseldorf, Stockholm and Wellington under a review of its network amid the coronavirus crisis.
Stations in those cities will be closed as a result of this decision, the conflicting national carrier said in an operational update on Tuesday.
SIA also said it “continues to review its fleet and network plans” to prepare for a “very different aviation landscape” due to Covid-19. The group added that it will continue to closely monitor demand patterns in international air travel and “will be flexible and agile” in deploying capacity in response.
This comes at a time when demand for air travel remains “severely restricted”, and most countries in the world continue to maintain border controls and travel restrictions to slow the spread of the virus.
The group’s passenger capacity (measured in kilometers of available seats) for August was down 92.2 percent on the year. Meanwhile, total passenger transportation (measured in revenue passenger-kilometers) for August was 98.3 percent lower year-on-year.
SIA said last week that it would cut 4,300 jobs, about 20 percent of its workforce, as a slow recovery in travel demand prompts carriers around the world to adjust the size of their operations.
The downsizing exercise started on Monday, and around 2,400 employees, both in Singapore and abroad, are likely to face layoffs. The remaining 1,900 functions will be eliminated through natural abandonment, voluntary departure plans and a hiring freeze.
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