Singapore Airlines returning to Chengdu, Chongqing, Shenzhen and Xiamen

Back in March this year we reported on Singapore Airlines announcing a surprise suspension for three of its routes to and from mainland China, with regular flights to Chongqing, Shenzhen and Xiamen seeing a rather sudden cessation of service later that same month.

SIA cited “regulatory reasons” for the suspension, saying it was “in discussions with the relevant authorities to resume operations to these points as soon as possible”.

Just this week a fourth city in China joined that suspension list, with the final Chengdu service operating on 24th October 2023, with no planned future flights loaded on that route for many weeks now.

It means that for the time being, Singapore Airlines is only serving Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai in mainland China with regular passenger services.

All four suspended cities are coming back

Thankfully SIA’s discussions for these suspended routes have finally yielded some progress.

All four cities with suspended service will see a reinstatement of regular passenger flights, but this will also see all four suffer an equipment downgauge from former wide-body service to the carrier’s 154-seat Boeing 737-8 MAX jets.

This will bring them more in line with their pre-pandemic operation, under SilkAir.

• Chengdu will restart on 3rd December 2023, with four times weekly flights, increasing to daily during January 2024 but then reducing to three times weekly from February 2024 onwards
• Chongqing will restart on 26th November 2023 with three times weekly flights
• Shenzhen will restart on 26th November 2023 with daily flights
• Xiamen will restart on 3rd December 2023, with daily flights

Here are the full details of the reinstatements on these routes.

Chengdu

Singapore Airlines started flights to Chengdu on 1st November 2022.

The former SilkAir route saw 10 times weekly service using a mixture of Boeing 737-800 and Airbus A320 aircraft back in early 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, but SIA reinstated flights late last year using a three-class Airbus A350 Long Haul just once per week, on Tuesdays.

The final flight on this route operated on 24th October 2023, with an indefinite suspension then on the cards – until now.

Singapore Airlines will restart this service from 3rd December 2023, following a five-week hiatus.

Boeing 737-8 MAX aircraft will be deployed on Chengdu flights, but the schedule itself is quite variable.

Here’s how it looks for the first month, with four weekly flights on offer.

3rd December 2023 – 31st December 2023

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	SQ842 737-8 MAX
SIN 09:40		TFU 14:35
	SQ843 737-8 MAX
TFU 15:50		SIN 21:00

During most of January 2024, the SQ842/843 service will be hiked to daily operation.

1st January 2024 – 29th January 2024

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	SQ842 737-8 MAX
SIN 09:40		TFU 14:35
	SQ843 737-8 MAX
TFU 15:50		SIN 21:00

Strangely, from late January 2024 until the end of the northern winter season, SIA’s Chengdu flights are cut back to three times weekly, with completely different flight numbers and timings.

31st January 2024 – 30th March 2024

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	SQ844 737-8 MAX
SIN 02:10		TFU 07:00
	SQ845 737-8 MAX
TFU 08:15		SIN 13:10

We expect a more consistent and permanent flight schedule on this route will probably be loaded from the start of the northern summer schedule, which kicks off in late March 2024.

Chongqing

Of its China route suspensions, Chongqing was perhaps SIA’s strangest.

That’s because the Singapore Airlines Group never stopped serving Chongqing during COVID-19.

Pre-pandemic SilkAir flights were cut down from daily to once weekly (Monday) services in April 2020, but in fact it became SilkAir’s sole remaining route for around six weeks, between early April and mid-June 2020.

Chongqing flights transferred to Singapore Airlines on 8th March 2021, as SilkAir operations were progressively merged into those of the mainline carrier, initially using Boeing 737-800 aircraft but later upgraded to the larger Boeing 787-10 from July 2021.

Following the last Singapore Airlines flight to and from Chongqing will on Monday 20th March 2023, the carrier will reinstate three times weekly services from Sunday 26th November 2023, after an eight-month hiatus.

Here’s how the schedule looks through to the end of the northern winter season.

26th November 2023 – 30th March 2024

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	SQ818 737-8 MAX
SIN 18:40		CKG 23:25
	SQ819 737-8 MAX
CKG 00:40		SIN 05:35

Shenzhen

Shenzhen was another former SilkAir route, which saw 12 times weekly Boeing 737-800 service prior to COVID-19, but was suspended in February 2020.

Weekly (Sunday) services restarted under the SIA banner on 15th November 2020, using Airbus A350 Medium Haul aircraft. Flights even increased to three times weekly on the same aircraft type, but stopped abruptly on Friday 24th March 2023.

Thankfully this route is back on the network from late November, on a daily basis, using Boeing 737-8 MAX aircraft, as shown in the following schedule.

26th November 2023 – 30th March 2024

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	SQ856 737-8 MAX
SIN 21:30		SZX 01:40*
	SQ857 737-8 MAX
SZX 02:50		SIN 06:50

* Next day

Xiamen

Xiamen was operated daily by SilkAir pre-pandemic before its COVID suspension, and was then restarted on 3rd November 2022 as a weekly Singapore Airlines service, using Airbus A350 Medium Haul aircraft.

The route operated twice weekly on Thursdays and Saturdays, but ceased earlier this year, with the last flight operating on Saturday 25th March 2023.

The route will be reinstated on a daily basis using Boeing 737-8 MAX aircraft from 3rd December 2023, as shown in the following schedule.

3rd December 2023 – 29th January 2024

			Days
			M	T	W	T	F	S	S
	SQ868 737-8 MAX
SIN 08:15		XMN 12:25
	SQ869 737-8 MAX
XMN 13:40		SIN 18:45

Strangely Xiamen is currently listed as a short-term addition, ending on 29th January 2024.

Boeing 737-8 MAX

These route additions will see the Singapore Airlines Boeing 737-8 MAX fleet extend their reach to 27 destinations this upcoming winter season, instead of the originally-proposed 22 cities, with selected Guangzhou flights also seeing MAX operation from early 2024.

By January 2024, this will see 215 weekly Singapore Airlines Boeing 737-8 MAX departures from Changi, meaning around 20% of the airline’s flights (one in five) will be flown by the type.

Here’s how SIA’s Boeing 737-8 MAX route network looks this winter.

We’ve updated our list of Singapore Airlines Boeing 737-8 MAX routes for the upcoming season to reflect these new route additions.

All of SIA’s Boeing 737-8 MAXs operating these reinstated China flights have new narrow-body cabin products, including flat-bed seats in Business Class and seat-back in-flight entertainment screens in Economy Class.

Here are our dedicated articles covering the new cabins, to help you know what to expect on board.

KrisFlyer award redemption rates

Here’s a breakdown of the KrisFlyer miles needed to redeem on these four China routes.

KrisFlyer Redemption (one-way) Singapore ⇄ China
	Saver	Advantage
Economy	16,500	30,000
Business	34,000	50,000

These award rates also apply to SIA’s Guangzhou and Hong Kong flights.

Do note that SIA’s “North China” flights to and from Beijing and Shanghai fall under a more expensive redemption zone, but both routes also offer Premium Economy and First Class / Suites cabins.

Here are the redemption rates for those services.

KrisFlyer Redemption (one-way) Singapore ⇄ Beijing / Shanghai
	Saver	Advantage
Economy	21,500	40,000
Premium Economy	34,500	n/a
Business	43,000	65,000
First / Suites	58,500	98,000

Travel to China

When the first three of these routes were suspended, tourist visits to China were unfeasible, since the country had paused its Tourist Visa and visa exemption for Singapore citizens remained suspended.

Thankfully things have changed significantly for the better since then, with visa-free travel for Singaporeans since 26th July 2023 and all COVID-19 testing scrapped for international arrivals from 30th August 2023.

That means the travel process to China has now returned to pre-pandemic norms, with the exception of the requirement to complete the “Exit/Entry Health Declaration Form” before travelling to China from overseas, and producing the QR code to your airline and/or at the airport upon arrival.

The form can be obtained at htdecl.chinaport.gov.cn, or completed via the China Customs Apple app, or from the WeChat app ‘Customs Passenger Fingertip Service’.

Singapore Airlines made a surprise suspension decision for three of its mainland China routes – Chongqing (a stalwart route throughout COVID), Shenzhen and Xiamen, in March 2023.

These were then followed by Chengdu in October 2023, which has now lost SIA passenger flights as well.

Luckily matters are being resolved and all four of these cities will once again see regular services reinstated later this year, using Boeing 737-8 MAX aircraft, which isn’t too surprising as they were SilkAir routes pre-pandemic.

This comes as China lifted the last of its major COVID-19 travel restrictions a couple of months ago, making trips for Singaporeans practically as simple as they were in pre-pandemic times.

(Cover Photo: Markus Mainka / Shutterstock)