Singapore Airlines Looks to Resume Flights to More Destinations
“Singapore Airlines (SIA) is continuously looking for opportunities to restart operations across its network of destinations,” SIA Regional Offline Manager Europe Kardien de Werker said during an online press event on Friday.
Consisting of Singapore Airlines-Silk Air and low-cost carrier Scoot, SIA, during the last six months, has resumed flights to almost half of the destinations it served before the start of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
As of September, the SIA group serves 45 destinations across 24 countries, instead of 96 destinations in 34 countries prior to the pandemic.
Meanwhile, in Europe, Singapore Airlines has closed its stations in Stockholm and Düsseldorf and is conducting 25 weekly flights between Singapore and European destinations (instead of 155 in January 2020) incuding Frankfurt, Paris, Rome and London.
“Resuming flights to our entire network of destinations depends on market demand, the confidence of passengers to travel and Covid-19 regulations… It could take 2-3 years or more for our network to return to pre-Covid-19 levels. As long as there is not a vaccine… it will be a very challenging job to bring everything back to normal,” Kardien de Werke said.
SIA in the Greek market
The SIA Group is also monitoring developments in the Greek market, and looking for the opportunity to resume flights between Singapore and Athens.
It is reminded that the direct itinerary was conducted by the group’s low-cost arm Scoot, but is temporarily suspended until end-March 2021, due to weak demand arising from Covid-19.
According to Kardien de Werker, Greece remains one of the most important markets in Europe for Singapore Airlines, due to the high demand for air travel from the marine sector.
“We see many requests for the transportation of seamen from Europe to Singapore and vise versa,” he told reporters.
He also underlined that Greece was very popular among travelers during the summer season.
Asian Aviation is the official representative of Singapore Airlines in Greece, Cyprus and Albania.