Singapore Airlines Group Pleased with Scoot’s Performance in Greek Market

The Singapore Airlines (SIA) Group’s post-Covid performance and its confidence in the Greek market were the main issues touched by company representatives during a recent media briefing in Athens.

“We are firmly on track to recovery and the worst is certainly behind us,” Singapore Airlines Regional Vice President Europe Sek Eng Lee said, referring to SIA’s strong operating performance in the first quarter (April-June 30) which continued into July.

According to Lee, demand for air travel remained robust during the peak summer season across every route region except East Asia, where travel restrictions remain in place in some key markets.

All SIA’s routes in Europe have been reinstated while the Group has also launched additional flights to London, Milan and Paris and added capacity to Barcelona and Athens.

SIA serves the Greek market through its low-cost carrier Scoot which flies the Athens-Singapore route four times a week. Scoot is the only airline that offers direct flights between Athens and Singapore.

SIA Regional Vice President Europe Sek Eng Lee (center) with the company’s regional offline manager for Europe, Kardien De Werker (left), and Asian Aviation (GSA in Greece) General Manager Dimitris Dimitriou.

“We are very happy to have added capacity on the Athens-Singapore route,” said Dimitris Dimitriou, the general manager of Asian Aviation, SIA and Scoot’s general sales agent (GSA) in Greece.

According to Dimitriou, Scoot right before the pandemic had reached the benchmark of five flights per week. The airline intends to build its frequency again next season and will also consider the possibility of a daily connection between the two destinations.

During the 2022-2023 winter season, Scoot will be operating two flights per week between Athens and Singapore from October 27 and until April 2023.

It should be mentioned that Scoot selected Athens as its first European destination when plans to expand to Europe were announced in 2016.

According to SIA’s regional offline manager for Europe, Kardien De Werker, the Group is very satisfied with Scoot’s performance in the Greek market

“We are very happy with these Scoot connections and for being present in this country,” he said, underlining the growing demand of both inbound and outbound travelers.

“We have alot of travelers from Singapore and Australia traveling on these flights to Athens for holiday but at the same time we are noticing a growing trend of Greeks traveling to Asia and Australia via Scoot,” De Werker said.

SIA marks two milestones in passenger recovery

SIA Regional Vice President Europe Sek Eng Lee with the company’s regional offline manager for Europe, Kardien De Werker.

Highlighting SIA’s passenger recovery from the impact of the Covid pandemic, Singapore Airlines Regional Vice President Europe Sek Eng Lee said the Group has marked two major milestones: its performance in the first quarter of FY2022/23 (April-June 30) and its passenger demand in July.

SIA in Q1 saw an operating profit of S$556 million, the Group’s second highest quarterly operating profit since Q3 FY2007/08.

This came as the demand for air travel rose sharply after Singapore fully opened its borders to vaccinated travellers in April 2022.

“That was a game changer for us,” Lee said.

SIA and Scoot carried 5.1 million passengers during the first quarter – up 158.2 percent from the previous quarter and fourteen-fold higher than a year before.

Meanwhile, in July, the Group carried more than 2 million passengers, up 7.5 percent from the previous month.

“This was the first time we crossed the 2 million mark since the pandemic started,” he said.

SIA’s passenger load factor (PLF) in July reached a new pandemic-high of 87.4 percent – the second highest monthly PLF in the SIA Group’s history (its highest ever monthly PLF was 87.6 percent in December 2019).

The SIA Group capacity in July reached 67 percent globally of pre-Covid-19 levels.

“We expect that by end of Q2 to have reached 76 percent of our pre covid capacity,” he said.

Asian Aviation is the official representative of Singapore Airlines and Scoot in Greece.