Singapore Airlines releases schedules to October 2020, including Istanbul

Singapore Airlines and SilkAir have extended their existing published passenger flight schedules through to the end of the northern summer season on 25th October 2020. Following Perth joining the list of passenger routes on 18th August, Istanbul has also been added by the mainline carrier from 26th August.

Frequencies have also been increased to and from Seoul for the second consecutive month in October 2020, with passenger service to the South Korean capital ramping up to five days per week.

Daily connections are maintained to and from London, Hong Kong and at ‘group level’ to and from Kuala Lumpur (SIA and SilkAir combined).

Overall, schedules lift to around 8% of usual levels in October 2020.

  Headline figures

In total SIA and SilkAir will fly 625 passenger flights between 1st – 24th October 2020, a 5% increase on the 594 services being operated over the same period in September 2020 (1st – 24th Sep).

We already knew about Cebu, Milan, Perth, Phnom Penh and Taipei, so Istanbul is the only addition here, from late August 2020.

SIA’s low-cost subsidiary Scoot recently increased its August schedule by around a third to 140 passenger flights, reaching 2.5% of normal levels. The airline has yet to announce its September and October 2020 flight schedules.

Singapore Airlines flights

Singapore Airlines will operate the following passenger flight volumes in each month:

• 583 in August 2020
• 655 in September 2020
• 554 in October 2020*

* 1st – 24th October only

Though this looks like a drop, schedules for October have only been loaded until 24th of that month (the end of the northern summer season), so in fact it’s an increase equivalent to around 690 flights for the full month of October 2020.

Unfortunately due to the strict travel restrictions still in force around the world as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, this is still a far cry from anything close to normal, and certainly not the ‘V-shaped’ recovery predicted by some when the crisis first hit earlier this year.

Existing routes with frequency changes in September 2020:

• Auckland (3/wk > 4/wk)
• Hong Kong (3/wk > 7/wk)
• Seoul (2/wk > 3/wk)

Existing routes with frequency changes in October 2020:

• Seoul (3/wk > 5/wk)

Here’s a map of the 19 Asia-Pacific destinations being served by Singapore Airlines in September 2020, including the soon to be reinstated Perth and Taipei routes.

In addition, a single US destination and nine European cities will be served (Singapore Airlines is classifying Istanbul as Europe in its updated schedule listing)

Singapore Airlines will be operating the following passenger flights to and from 29 cities during the August to October 2020 period.

  Newly added city (Aug – Oct)

All flights not listed below are cancelled during this period, or will operate as cargo-only services.

* Note: Saturday service added in September, Tuesday and Thursday services added in October

As you can see Singapore Airlines is continuing to dedicate its passenger flights to two aircraft types through to late October – the Airbus A350 (3-class and Regional variants) and Boeing 787-10.

That means no more First Class or Suites cabins for the foreseeable future, with Airbus A380s, Boeing 777-300s and Boeing 777-300ERs all in storage either at Changi or in Alice Springs, Australia.

Note: Some aircraft types in GDS and at SingaporeAir.com still reflect their originally planned variants. This will be updated in the coming days.

SilkAir

SilkAir has brought forward its Cebu route, a destination originally planned for June but never actually restarted then announced again for September. Those flights will now start in August.

Otherwise it’s the same network for the regional carrier, with Phnom Penh added from September as previously announced, for a total of five cities served.

SilkAir will be running the following passenger flights during the August – October 2020 period.

  Newly added city (Aug – Oct)

All SilkAir flights not listed below are cancelled during this period.

Full schedules

Full flight schedules for SIA and SilkAir during the August to October 2020 period are now available at the Singapore Airlines website.

These are regularly updated, so do check for the latest changes.

  SIA and SilkAir August – October Flight Schedules

Scoot

SIA’s low cost subsidiary Scoot expended its route network to 12 cities in August 2020, with 140 services planned, its highest capacity by flight volumes since the airline imposed a skeleton schedule in April 2020.

Full Scoot August Flight Schedule READ THE ARTICLE

Full Scoot August Flight Schedule READ THE ARTICLE

Scoot tends to hold back on its schedule announcements until closer to the time and has not yet confirmed whether further frequencies and destinations will be added in September or October 2020.

Hopefully we can bring you more news on that from mid-August.

What if your flight has been cancelled?

You may be protected by SIA’s latest travel waiver policy, in which case you can:

• Apply for a full cash refund; or
• Receive a travel credit voucher including a bonus credit against a future booking

See our article here covering the latest travel waiver policy for details, or check the SIA website here.

Late October onwards

As with previous months, Singapore Airlines continues to load practically its full schedule in GDS from the start of the northern winter season on 25th October 2020. It will then later announce which services will actually go ahead.

Do remember that these forward plans (25th October 2020 onwards) are subject to significant further cuts based on the coronavirus situation closer to the time, so we expect a revised service operation list to be announced closer to the time.

Summary

A new connection to Istanbul and increased frequencies to Seoul are really the only news in this update, with little to no passenger market for the SIA Group to serve other than a limited (albeit important) opportunity for transit passengers to move around the world.

Without any relaxation of border restrictions, leisure travel is certainly looking like a 2021 prospect for most of our readers based in Asia.

We can’t realistically see Singapore Airlines returning to 10%+ of normal capacity levels in the coming months without significant progress to agree at least some form of common travel corridors and / or regular international tourist activity.

Let’s see what the northern winter schedule brings from late October 2020.

(Cover Photo: Shutterstock)