Scoot flying to 20 destinations in October and November

SIA’s low-cost subsidiary Scoot is continuing the cautious expansion of its passenger flight schedules in October and November 2020, confirming today that it will serve a total of 20 cities from Singapore. That represents the carrier’s largest network since flights were cut to a skeleton schedule of just two cities back in April 2020.

With the very limited frequencies on offer and some routes operating only fortnightly or even less often, in total the airline will operate 186 flights during October 2020 and 170 flights during November 2020. That’s equivalent to just over 3% of Scoot’s originally proposed capacity by flight volumes during the period.

Where is new?

From October 2020 two additional cities join the existing 18 on the Scoot network:

• Semarang, Indonesia
• Tianjin, China

This will be Scoot’s inaugural service to Semarang, a route it is taking over from SilkAir under a planned transfer first announced in late 2018. Airbus A320s will be deployed on this city pair.

Flights were originally proposed to become Scoot-operated from July 2020. SilkAir stopped flying its three times weekly services to Semarang on 20th March 2020, due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Tianjin is a second attempt at a restart for Scoot. A fortnightly service was originally loaded from 19th August 2020, however only one service actually operated. As with the previous plan, Boeing 787-9s are rostered for this service from 21st October 2020.

These two routes will join the existing 18 on Scoot’s passenger network, which are already being operated as of September 2020:

Clark Guangzhou Hong Kong Ipoh Kaohsiung Kuala Lumpur Kuching Nanjing Osaka

Palembang* Pekanbaru* Penang Perth Seoul Surabaya Taipei Tokyo Yogyakarta

* Originally announced from September 2020, however launch has been delayed until October 2020.

Schedule: Regular flights

The new flight schedule for services operating at least once per week is as follows, running from 1st October – 30th November 2020.

  Newly added this month

Clark
	Days							Acft
	M	T	W	T	F	S	S
SIN ➔ CRK TR386								320
CRK ➔ SIN TR387								320

Guangzhou
	Days							Acft
	M	T	W	T	F	S	S
SIN ➔ CAN TR100								789
CAN ➔ SIN TR101								789

Hong Kong
	Days							Acft
	M	T	W	T	F	S	S
SIN ➔ HKG TR980								789
HKG ➔ SIN TR981								789

Ipoh
	Days							Acft
	M	T	W	T	F	S	S
SIN ➔ IPH TR480/6								320
IPH ➔ SIN TR481/7								320

Kaohsiung / Osaka (until 25 Oct)
	Days							Acft
	M	T	W	T	F	S	S
SIN ➔ KHH TR884								789
KHH ➔ KIX TR884								789
KIX ➔ KHH TR885								789
KHH ➔ SIN TR885								789

Kaohsiung / Osaka (from 31 Oct)
	Days							Acft
	M	T	W	T	F	S	S
SIN ➔ KHH TR894								789
KHH ➔ KIX TR894								789
KIX ➔ KHH TR895								789
KHH ➔ SIN TR895								789

Kuala Lumpur
	Days							Acft
	M	T	W	T	F	S	S
SIN ➔ KUL TR452								32N
KUL ➔ SIN TR453								32N

Kuching
	Days							Acft
	M	T	W	T	F	S	S
SIN ➔ KCH TR430								320
KCH ➔ SIN TR431								320

Nanjing
	Days							Acft
	M	T	W	T	F	S	S
SIN ➔ NKG TR180								789
NKG ➔ SIN TR181								789

Penang
	Days							Acft
	M	T	W	T	F	S	S
SIN ➔ PEN TR426								320
PEN ➔ SIN TR427								320

Perth
	Days							Acft
	M	T	W	T	F	S	S
SIN ➔ PER TR8								789
PER ➔ SIN TR9								789
SIN ➔ PER TR16								789
PER ➔ SIN TR17								789

Surabaya
	Days							Acft
	M	T	W	T	F	S	S
SIN ➔ SUB TR262/4								320
SUB ➔ SIN TR263/5								320

Taipei / Seoul (until 24 Oct)
	Days							Acft
	M	T	W	T	F	S	S
SIN ➔ TPE TR880								789
TPE ➔ ICN TR880								789
ICN ➔ TPE TR881								789
TPE ➔ SIN TR881								789

Taipei / Seoul (from 30 Oct)
	Days							Acft
	M	T	W	T	F	S	S
SIN ➔ TPE TR896								789
TPE ➔ ICN TR896								789
ICN ➔ TPE TR897								789
TPE ➔ SIN TR897								789

Taipei / Tokyo (until 22 Oct)
	Days							Acft
	M	T	W	T	F	S	S
SIN ➔ TPE TR882								789
TPE ➔ NRT TR882								789
NRT ➔ TPE TR883								789
TPE ➔ SIN TR883								789

Taipei / Tokyo (from 28 Oct)
	Days							Acft
	M	T	W	T	F	S	S
SIN ➔ TPE TR898								789
TPE ➔ NRT TR898								789
NRT ➔ TPE TR899								789
TPE ➔ SIN TR899								789

Schedule: Ad-hoc services

Flights to and from the following cities in October and November 2020 will operate on a less than weekly basis, or only on specific dates.

  Newly added this month

Palembang
	Dates of operation	Acft
SIN ➔ PLM TR250	Oct: 13th Nov: 3rd, 17th	320
PLM ➔ SIN TR251

Pekanbaru
	Dates of operation	Acft
SIN ➔ PKU TR252	Oct: 29th Nov: 12th, 26th	320
PKU ➔ SIN TR253

Semarang
	Dates of operation	Acft
SIN ➔ SRG TR240	Oct: 21st No services planned in November	320
SRG ➔ SIN TR241

Tianjin
	Dates of operation	Acft
SIN ➔ TSN TR138	Oct: 21st Nov: 4th, 18th	789
TSN ➔ SIN TR139

Yogyakarta
	Dates of operation	Acft
SIN ➔ YIA TR212	Oct: 13th No services planned in November	320
YIA ➔ SIN TR213

As you can see many of these routes like Tianjin and Palembang will be operating on a fortnightly basis during the coming months.

Transit permissions

All Singapore Airlines, SilkAir and Scoot passengers originating at any city on the network can now transit through Changi Airport en-route to their final destination provided they are flying with and SIA Group airline, with the exception of cities in the Philippines and the USA.

That means Scoot’s passengers starting their journey in Clark are the only ones excluded from the transit approval.

  Flight totals

Looking at the week commencing 19th October 2020, a total of 44 weekly Scoot passenger flights will be operated.

That doesn’t come close to the 1,200 weekly flights Scoot had originally planned for the month, however a marginally increased schedule with two more cities on the roster continues to be a step in the right direction from the original low point of 12 weekly passenger flights in both April and May 2020.

In total during October 186 Scoot passenger flights are scheduled, a 22% increase on the 152 operated in August 2020. A slight drop is then seen in the shorter month of November, though there is presumably the possibility of additional services being added by then.

The airline’s Boeing 787-9 aircraft are also continuing to fly additional cargo-only services to cities like Wuhan, with some cargo-only Airbus A320 flights also operating.

The full Scoot passenger flight schedule for September, October and November 2020, which is subject to occasional updates, is available here.

  Scoot Sep – Nov Flight Schedules

Here’s how Scoot’s weekly passenger seat capacity has increased since the first skeleton schedule to two cities was adopted in early April 2020, based on week commencing 19th October.

With an increase in total flights during October 2020, ‘peak week’ passenger capacity rises to almost 14,000 during the month.

ScootPlus routes

The ScootPlus cabin (formerly known as ScootBiz), which normally offer more legroom, additional baggage allowance, meals and a free Wi-Fi allowance, was temporarily unavailable during the airline’s limited flight schedules introduced in April 2020.

ScootPlus became open for booking again on Boeing 787-operated flights from August 2020.

This remains the case in October and November 2020, though the experience is a little ‘dulled down’ compared to before, with the following benefits:

• Bigger full leather seat with at least 38” (96cm) of legroom, 22” (56cm) of width, 6” (15cm) of recline and fully adjustable headrests and legrests.
• 30kg check-in baggage allowance, however upsized cabin baggage allowance does not currently apply.
• Priority check-in and boarding.
• 30MB free Wi-Fi allowance.

Effectively the extra Cabin Bag, meal Selection and seats selection are not currently available.

ScootPlus is available in October and November 2020 on the following routes:

• Guangzhou
• Hong Kong
• Kaohsiung
• Nanjing
• Osaka
• Perth
• Seoul
• Taipei
• Tianjin

SIA and SilkAir

These services will complement Singapore Airlines’ own 31 passenger destinations and SilkAir’s five routes from Changi during October and November 2020.

This list includes new flights to Johannesburg, Taipei and Surabaya, plus increased frequencies on routes including London and Sydney as Singapore Airlines, SilkAir and Scoot are now all able to take advantage of intra-group transit passenger traffic.

What if your flight has been cancelled?

Scoot’s current travel waiver is applicable if you booked your flight on or before 15th March 2020 for travel between 23rd January 2020 and 31st December 2020.

There are two options to claim a refund:

• A 100% refund via the original method of payment, or
• A 120% refund in Scoot vouchers, valid for 12 months.

For a 100% refund to your original payment method, Scoot is advising of a wait of up to 14 weeks for processing.

“For guests choosing [the refund] option, please note that it will take up to 14 weeks. In view of the volume of requests to process, we will be doing so in batches.  We ask for your understanding and patience whilst we get to your file.”

Scoot

If you previously applied for a refund and opted for the voucher, this will be voided on processing of the cash refund should you now opt for that method.

If you would rather receive the 120% refund in Scoot vouchers, note the following:

• You have 12 months to use these vouchers to make a new booking, for any travel period available on the Scoot website at the time of booking. You may use up to two vouchers per transaction.
• If you have previously received a 100% refund in the form of Scoot travel vouchers (i.e. before 9th April 2020), you will receive an additional voucher worth 20% of your original itinerary value.

Scoot’s Manage My Booking portal supports customers wishing to select these options online.

If you booked your Scoot flights through third-party booking channels or a travel agent, you should contact the relevant channel or agents for assistance.

Remember this Scoot voucher has a fixed value, dependent on the total price of your original itinerary, and there will be no point in complaining if your ticket is over 20% more expensive when you come to rebook in future, even on the same route.

Full details of the latest Scoot COVID-19 travel waiver policy can be found here.

Summary

A cautious increase for Scoot passenger flights over the next two months, with only two destinations added and many services proposed on a fortnightly or ad-hoc basis, as the airline no doubt balances travel restrictions and caps on services with limited passenger demand.

Overall, Scoot continues to cut approximately 97% of its passenger capacity through to 30th November 2020, a stark drop compared with usual operation.

It’s good to see more destinations on offer, however these small incremental network increases from Scoot, not to mention the very infrequent nature of most services, are likely to continue until there is any significant easing of travel restrictions to and from the airline’s principal markets.

(Cover Photo: Gradepixel)